Employment Relationship Management in Australia

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Briefly explain what Labor’s safety net for employment and collective bargaining consists of

Collective bargaining in Australia consists of issues relating to salaries, working hours, workplace conditions as well as the procedures in airing grievances. Labour’s safety net for employment is made up of provisions that demand the safety of workers when in line of duty. Personal protective equipment, as well as engineering techniques to safeguard employees well being, are contained.

Briefly outline the main roles of Fair Work Australia as of 1 January 2010

The major roles of Fair Work Australia are:

I am offering a set of net minimum working conditions.
Facilitate good faith bargaining.
Regulate and monitor issues relating to industrial actions.
Help in resolving disputes in the workplace via dispute resolution methods.
We are dealing with issues relating to the unlawful termination of employment.

Briefly outline what is meant by the term ‘Alternative Dispute Resolution’ (ADR) and describe two ADR techniques

Alternative dispute resolution refers to the processes used by parties to resolve conflicts with or without a third party and usually outside courtrooms. Mediation is one technique of ADR and involves a third party who facilitates negotiation between the parties in conflict. The approach has a structure and a time limit. The skills of the mediators play a major role in determining the results of the negotiation. Another technique is a negotiation which involves a dialogue between involved parties (no third party) with the aim of resolving points of differences reach an understanding, produce agreed action to be taken among others (O’Dea, 1999).

Briefly outline the changes from WorkChoices to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth.) with regards to conflict resolution

The major changes from Work Choices to the Fair Work Act 2009: workers can bring forth claims against their employers when their rights at place of work are breached, new laws governing unfair termination of employment, both workers and their employers can bargain for enterprise agreement guided by the principle of faith, awards such as federal. Notional Agreement Preserving State is to be replaced with modern ones and finally a minimum of five conditions governing workplace characteristics.

Briefly explain the main differences between unitarism and pluralism

Unitarian is the belief that employees and the management are working towards a common goal. Common agenda is shared, and the whole organization is perceived to be one big family. Additionally, guitarist demands loyalty from workers (O’Dea, 1999). Trade unions are seen to be of no use, and conflicts are seen to be very destructive. On the other hand, pluralism holds that an organization is comprised of diverse and powerful sub-set of individuals having distinct goals and objectives. For this reason, it is then believed that there is a need to acknowledge the differences as a base of good relation at the place of work. Similarly, individuals are given an opportunity to air their views. Unions are seen to be very important in negotiating for employees.

Explain which constitutional powers have been significant in recent years for federal government intervention in employee relations?

The Workplace Relation Act 1996 is one of the powers that have encouraged the federal government to intervene in employee relations. The act outlawed pattern bargaining, made it mandatory for secret ballots, increasing restriction on allowable strike, creating a minimum of 5 working condition among others. The Industrial Relation Act of 1999, which sets the standard working hours, is still very significant at present. Similarly, through the children act of 1987, the constitution makes it illegal to employ individuals who are below 15 years (Wooden, 2006). Youths are thus protected from exploitation.

Identify and critically discuss the changes that have driven the shift in Australian employee relations from a national to an enterprise level. How do you see these factors further influencing and changing employee relations?

The major factors contributing to the shift of employee relation from national to enterprise-level are the following: politics, globalization and need for efficiency when dealing with workers. As for globalization, the interconnectedness, free flow of human capital has compelled organizations to have employee relation shift to the enterprise level. As a result, since Australia does not exist in isolation has been compelled to change employee relation.

On the same note, the tremendous change in politics and leadership in the country is another change contributing to the shift. For instance, since the new government came to power in 1996, it has pushed to policies that are seen to be ‘hard-line’ making the employer make unilateral decisions (Lansbury, 2011). The desire to have in place a warm relationship between workers and their employers pushed for an industrial relationship that understood their own issues, and this could be found in enterprise-level relation. Politics and globalization will continue to impact on this kind of changes for a number of years to come.

References

Lansbury, R. 2011, The accord between the unions and government in Australia: A new experiment in industrial relations? Sydney: West Publishing.

O’Dea, R. 1999, Industrial relations in Australia. Sydney: West Publishing.

Wooden, M. 2006, Implications of work choices legislation. Agenda, 13 (2): pp. 99–116.

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