Labour laws are designed in part to provide workers with adequate minimum labour standards, including access to collective voice and representation in establishing working conditions. They generally focus on ‘employees' but an increasing number of workers are not employees. As Judy Fudge has...

This article discusses the problem of the meaning of the term ‘worker' as used in ILO Standards, with particular reference to the principles of freedom of association, both in terms of the constitutional obligation to respect those principles, and of the core freedom of association...

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (‘ACCC’) is on the cusp of introducing a class exemption for collective bargaining for small businesses. This development is not just novel in the context of Australian competition law, it is important in terms of addressing entrenched...

Federal workplace relations in Australia and requirements relating to the use of industrial action within the context of collective bargaining are governed by the Fair Work Act 2009 (CTH) (FW Act). Protected industrial action by employees and their bargaining representatives is restricted to...

In 2010 the NZ Parliament passed an amendment to the Employment Relations Act 2000 (NZ) (ER Act) which purports to exclude a whole class of workers from the definition of ‘employee' in s 6 of the Act. The effect of the amendment in practice is to deny workers who fall within the exemption...

This article examines the June 2010 report of the International Labour Organisation Governing Body’s Committee on Freedom of Association (CFA) made in response to a complaint by the Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union of...

This article examines the industrial action provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) in the context of international labour standards which protect the right to strike, particularly the International Labour Organisations’ Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise...

This article examines the recent changes to the federal legal regime that controls the taking of protected industrial action in Australia. It considers the impact of both the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005 (Cth) and the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act...

Collective bargaining by small business actors, including independent contractors, is subject to the anti-competitive conduct provisions in Part IV of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (TPA). The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission can authorise the pursuit of conduct that would...