Australian Government Regulation

The functions and role of law in business and society are vast and must be narrowed down for better understanding. Law is important to businesses because it not only protects the business but it gives the business guidelines to follow to ensure fair dealing and also reliability of business transactions. It important that a business understand that there are rules that must be followed when conducting day-to-day transactions and they will be held accountable for their actions. Law regulates society by also holding individuals accountable for their actions. The law essentially defines the rules and also defines what happens if the rules are broken by an individual or business.

In Australia, there is a set of laws which are designed to regulate the conduct of society. This can be achieved through many different paths; however, with reference to business interactions and transactions, the Australian Consumer Law provides provisions which must be followed by persons or trades. Morals and values of society are a key influence in the introduction of these laws as through their acts, it can be depicted how equality and fair treatment can be removed. With these acts in mind, the parliament is then able to make decisions as to what steps should be taken and what laws should be introduced if necessary.

Regulating a variety of aspects of business and society is an old and often controversial aspect of government, particularly at the national level. Much of what the national government does, or fails to do, has an impact on individual citizens, private corporations and other business enterprises, agricultural producers and marketers, foreign governments, labor unions, and state and local governments.

The implementation of the Fair Work Act 2009 which came into force on January 1st 2010, was to create a national workplace relations system for the purpose of setting wages and conditions of employment. This legislation is overlooked by the Fair Work Commission and ombudsman, whose role is to maintain a safety net of minimum wages and conditions and ensure compliance with the Fair Work Act. The creation of the Fair Work Act (2009) is to regulate business cooperation’s for the purpose of providing safety nets for minimum wages and entitlements, flexible working arrangements and ensure fairness at the workplace. Under the Fair Work Act 2009, ten National Employment Standards

EDE 325 Assignment 1 Case study (30%). Due 20th June, 2016, 1500 words (10% leeway +/-) Includes intext references.

that contemporary society exists in a post-modern era where westernised societies enjoy the benefits of higher living standards, where the rights of employees are elicited within the Australian Constitution and the rights of humans are dictated within Geneva conventions. An era where employees are entitled to government pensions, allowances, superannuation, and employees accrue sick and annual leave (McDonald & Brownlee, 2001). Furthermore employees are able to seek union representation and are legally entitled to industrial action. McDonald and Brownlee (2001) assert that Fair Work Australia, established as an institution responsible for fixating minimum wage and resolving work related disputes, perpetuates the notion that Australia is in transition to become an egalitarian society with minimal class disparity.

Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) (2012), Towards More Productive and Equitable Workplaces: An Evaluation of the Fair Work Legislation

Ryan and Herod (2006, p.494) indicates that the WorkChoices act contributed to the decline of union membership in Australia. Prior to the commencement of the act, the rights of employers and employees were regulated by industrial tribunals, unions and employment associations. It is detailed that the primary intentions of the WorkChoices act was to limit the power and influence of unions and support individual bargaining in contractual agreements. It is also argued that regulations could only be altered or changed by these counterparts, with the input of lawyers (Bray and Waring 2006, p.46), which proved to be time consuming (Howe 2013, p.138).

The Fair Work act (2009) replaced the highly controversial Work Choices act 2005, providing Australia with a unified system of industrial law. Work Choices act re-asserted managerial prerogative and enabled both employer and employees to choose the most appropriate industrial agreement that best suites their needs. This proved ineffective due to the imbalance of power in favour of employers and bargaining was on a take it or leave it basis (Nankervis et.al. 2014).

Due to the dynamic nature of the Australian labour market, we are able to respond to technological, economic, demographic and social changes that affect demand and supply of labour, at both a macroeconomic and microeconomic level. However the Australian labour market is not perfectly competitive as change in the demand and supply of labour through wage and employment levels in the many industries and occupations are not always responded perfectly. Thus, there are labour market institutions that intervene within the labour market to create changes and the two main institutions addressed in this report are the unions and the government.

Before 2011 all States and territories in Australia had separate laws and regulations regarding the protection of consumers. However they tried to implement a more national scheme based on part 5 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 which was on consumer protection. A beneficial as it may have been to ensure consistency the approach

Firstly, employment tribunals and the courts have interpreted the concept of ‘workers’ too narrowly, by limiting the common law interpretation of ‘workers’ under section 230(3) of the ERA 1996 and rights conferred on workers. Under section 230(3) ERA 1996, ‘worker’ is defined as “an individual who has entered into work: under a contract of employment, or any other contract express or implied… to do

There has been an increase in legislation in the past fifty years and it is now the most common source of law in Australia. It is seen as proactive as legislation can be generated to prevent future problems.

In this case, the rights of the casual worker were breached by his manager in the workplace and those rights were Anti-Discrimination and Unfair Dismissal which are considered as legal workplace rights of employees. This report also addresses the ten minimum National Employment Standards which are rights that are entitled to employees. This report also lists the rights of a Casual worker as the employee is a Casual worker.

In 1945 the Australian Council of Trade Unions established and agreed with three major industrial demands: A substantial increase in wage, an end to wage pegging, and a 40 hour week. Unions were founded on the principle that employees on their own, without union advocates and resources are unequal in the bargaining process and prone for exploitation. The tread towards negotiations on qualitative improvements such as training and job satisfaction makes workplace industrial negotiations for the unions' even more complex, necessitating substantial support for those involved in negotiating these issues at the workplace.