Workshop participants
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A research workshop on "Australian Labour Law: From 'Work Choices' to 'Fair Work'", was held on Wed 2 & Thurs 3 July 2008 at Monash University, Caulfield Campus.
It was jointly sponsored by WCLRG and the Centre for Employment & Labour Relations Law at the University of Melbourne.
Dr Anthony Forsyth (Director, WCLRG) and Professor Andrew Stewart (University of Adelaide) were the workshop convenors.
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The last few years have witnessed profound changes in Australian labour law, with the promise of more to come following the election of the Rudd Labor Government.
The Work Choices legislation has only been in operation for two years, so there has been little opportunity to ‘step back’ and examine how it has been operating in an overall sense. A number of academic publications have provided assessments of how the law is playing out in discrete areas (eg secret ballots for industrial action, the operational reasons exclusion from unfair dismissal, bargaining/the ‘fairness test’). However, this Workshop will be the first attempt to draw together the work being carried out by various individuals, to form a coherent assessment of the Work Choices legislation 'in practice'.
At the same time, the new Labor Government is commencing the task of implementing its Forward with Fairness ('FWF') policy. This will involve the reversal of some aspects of the Work Choices laws (eg AWAs, some of the unfair dismissal exclusions), and the introduction of a new collective bargaining system premised on 'good faith bargaining'. Importantly, some elements of Work Choices will be retained (eg limits on industrial action and union right of entry). Relevant aspects of the proposed 'Transition Bill/Act', and the likely shape of Labor's substantive reform legislation, will also be explored in the Workshop.
Download detail workshop program here (.pdf 52kb)
WCLRG is a research concentration in the Department of Business Law & Taxation at Monash University. It has been in operation since March 2008, having previously operated as the Corporate Law and Accountability Research Group (CLARG). Further details are available at: www.buseco.monash.edu.au/blt/clarg/; or contact WCLRG’s Director,
Dr Anthony Forsyth, at Anthony.Forsyth@buseco.monash.edu.au.
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