In the perspective of dominant orthodox standpoint against state-intervention to protect the interest of labour, this paper examines a longitudinal dataset on various aspects of labour law for four OECD countries (UK, USA, France and Germany) over a long time span 1970-2006. It supports the...

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 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 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...

One of the principal objectives of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth) is to ensure that the primary responsibility for determining industrial relations outcomes rests with employers and employees. At the time of introducing the legislation, the Coalition Government made it clear that a...

The Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Act 2008 (Cth) introduces three substantial reforms to the Australian workplace relations system. The first of these replaces the 'fairness test' for the assessment of statutory workplace agreements with a 'no disadvantage...

Cost reduction is one of the desirable results frequently attributed to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) processes. Although it is reasonable to assume that businesses always are interested in saving money, this goal takes on added importance when the economy is struggling. The cost savings...

The Writers Guild went on strike in 2007. The big issue: fees for programs released on new media such as the Internet. The strike was settled one hundred turbulent days later – but then the Screen Actors Guild spiraled out of control, unwilling to accept the same terms but unable to muster a...

This paper was presented at a symposium, hosted by the Florida International University Law Review during March 2011 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the enactment of the National Labor Relations Act. Dean R. Alexander Acosta, himself a former Board member, tasked the panelists not only with...

In 2007, I published Approaching Coal Mine Safety from a Comparative Law and Interdisciplinary Perspective, which raised, but did not answer, the following question: What do citizens of a “just” society owe workers, such as coal miners, who daily risk their lives for our collective comfort?...