LEG3111 | Employment Law | The Australian law of Labour and Employment

Sally a Human Resources student cannot find any specific employment law making power in the Australian Constitution. She is confused because she thought there was a federal employment system and laws. Explain if there is a federal system of employment law, what it consists of and how it came about.

Answer:

Australia being one of the countries in the list of the Commonwealth of the Great Britain faces challenges in legislating any Federal Law regarding Employment matters. However, under Section 51(35) of the Commonwealth Constitution, Australia can make laws pertaining to the issues of Labour (Ilo.org, 2018). This is going to be the subject matter of discussion in this essay.

The mentioned section deals with all matters ranging from the rate of wages, entitlement of leaves, security affairs and job related benefits. The law which is uniformly applicable to all employment generating organizations is the ‘Workplace Relations Act of 1996’ (May, Peetz and Strachan, 2013). According to this Act, an employer has been bestowed with the legal right to hire and fire employees on grounds of misconduct and also on termination of the contract period. An employer can also move the court in case the individual is treated unfairly by the employer. This is the very basic legal provision to regulate matters of labour and employment. There are specific arrangements that shall be dealing with other aspects of employment. 38 hours have been fixed as the duration of work shifts per week. It can be extendable to the maximum limit of 40 hours (May, Peetz and Strachan, 2013). Legally both full-time and part-time employees are entitled to paid leaves on justified grounds such as sickness. Maternity leaves are however the sole prerogative of women, and there are no provisions to extend that to the male spouses as well. Apart from that, even minimum wage to be given to the workers is also fixed. Protection from exploitation of workers of all ages are an integral part of the body of law as well. Relationship between trade unions and employers is also regulated by the law (Ilo.org, 2018).

The Australian law regarding labour and employment includes all such elements that are expected of a developed country to guarantee a high standard of living. Though it is critical to comprehend, but the basic rights are enshrined in it.

References

Ilo.org. 2018. National Labour Law Profile: Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.ilo.org/ifpdial/information-resources/national-labour-law-profiles/WCMS_158892/lang--en/index.htm [Accessed 20 Aug. 2018].

May, R., Peetz, D. and Strachan, G., 2013. The casual academic workforce and labour market segmentation in Australia. Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 23(3), pp.258-275.