Employee Relations: A Comparative Analysis of Labor Laws in Germany, U.S, and Australia

Running Head: EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
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Pharmaceutical companies in Australia are constantly innovating and experimenting to
make significant contribution to the economic prosperity of the nation. Pharmaceutical
companies also have a major role in improving the lives of the people. Innovative
pharmaceutical industry has substantially contributed more than $8.9 billion to the Australian
economy in the year 2016 (Rubin, Aas and Stead, 2015). Now considering the present situation
where the Australian Pharmaceutical company wants to expand in the pharmacy market of
Germany as well as in U.S, needs to consider in details the existing socio-political and
economical pharmaceutical industry condition of U.S and Germany along with its future growth
prospects. The German pharmaceutical industry is also recognized as one of the most prominent
sectors witnessing an average market volume and turnover of 40 billion Euros in sales on an
annual basis (Segers, 2016). Today there are more than 21,000 pharmacies operating in Germany
therefore it is quite significant that there exists a fierce competition in the pharmaceutical
industry of Germany, where as the U.S pharmaceutical market is considered as world’s most
significant and important national market with Canada and Mexico being the key players.
According to recent market survey conducted by The Business Research Company 2016, six out
of the top 10 companies were from the United States when based on pure pharmaceutical
revenue (Gautam and Pan, 2016). Thus it is of no doubt that both Germany and U.S promise
strong business growth prospects especially when it comes to pharmaceutical industry. However
the labor plays a significant role in maintaining the labor strength and positive work environment
within the business organization.
A pharmaceutical manufacturing unit definitely requires a large workforce. Therefore
setting up business operation in a foreign land demands for a detailed analysis of how the labor

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force operates in the host country, what are the rules and regulations pertaining to employee
regulation in Germany as well as in U.S and how different it is from the Australian framework of
employee regulation. Labor and employment laws are assigned to enable the business firm give
definite structure to the workplace, significantly state what employees and employers are
particularly responsible for and in other words majorly outline federal regulations to give enable
both the parties’ necessary direction for determining workplace conflict. These laws are
significant because they permit businesses to dedicate more of their attention to productivity and
cost-effectiveness rather than concentrating constantly on conflict resolution
Overview of Employee Regulation in Australia:
Australia is recognized with a very high and strict employee regulation system. Though it
often tends to vary a bit The National Employment Standards (NES), contained in the Fair Work
Act 2009 (Cth), has stated 10 minimum entitlements which is applicable to all employees (other
than some state public sector employees) irrespective of the industry they belong to and which
particularly regulates the working hours of employees along with varied rues pertaining to pain
and unpaid leaves, notice of termination and much more (Stewart and Stanford, 2017). Moreover
the Fair Work Commission is set to make modern awards to make the employment atmosphere
better and healthy which includes benefits like meal and rest breaks, overtime and penalty rates
for night time and weekend work. The jurisdiction also looks into matters like provision of leave
for employees affected by family violence, imposing personal liability on managers and
advisers who are found to be involved in a company’s breaches of employment law (Layton,
Smith and Stewart, 2013). Moreover Australia is also witnessing a gradual shift towards
engaging more casual employees rather than regular employees to help companies reduce their