The Howard government’s draconian Work Choices laws will soon be history. A change of government at the 2007 federal election means that Australian industrial relations legislation will continue to be a turbulent field, for some time yet. This review provides an account of the last piece of...

In 2009, two major pieces of industrial legislation were enacted to give effect to the Labor Government’s commitment to replace Work Choices with laws for ‘Fair Work’. The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) promises to bring greater stability and simplicity to Australia’s workplace relations...

This paper examines the impact of English and Australian unfair dismissal legislation on the common law rules which govern the termination of the employment contract. To explore this issue, the paper first outlines some general approaches to the interaction between statute law and the common...

This is a background paper for a project that maps the evolution of enterprise agreements in Australia through the lens of complexity/simplicity. Drawing on Peter Schuck's four features of complexity - technicality, density, differentiation and uncertainty - the project develops a...

Since the early debates about the introduction of enterprise bargaining in the late 1980s, politicians and other policymakers have consistently argued that the bargaining process should produce ‘simple' agreements. While a considerable body of empirical research has investigated the outcomes...

The 2005 reforms to the Workplace Relations Act 1996 will inevitably undermine collective bargaining, and place greater emphasis on individualised agreement-making. This article highlights various aspects of the new provisions that will substantially bolster the bargaining position of employers,...

A basic test of a labour law regime is the enforcement of minimum wage and other entitlements. This paper is concerned with the recovery of underpayments especially recovery of ‘small’ amounts by workers who are vulnerable in the marketplace. We gauge levels and quality of access to the...

In March 2008, the Rudd Government started to dismantle Work Choices. The Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Act 2008 (Cth) reintroduced agreement-making safeguards, and removed the option of making Australian Workplace Agreements. The legislation also provided...

In response to mounting community concern about the use of workplace agreements to erode employee conditions, the Howard Government has introduced substantial changes to the legal framework. These changes include a new Fairness Test and the rebadging of the two main institutions responsible for...