Role of Fair Work Commission in Australian Employment Relations

Running head: EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS
EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS
The committee of national workplace relations in Australia is known as Fair Work
Commission. The independent body reflects the power to facilitate a wide range of purposes,
which comprises of offering safety net for minimum conditions like minimum wages in the
form of awards, develop positive faith bargaining and for the purpose of forming enterprise
agreements (australia.gov.au, 2019). It also includes controlling of the industrial actions,
resolving individual as well as the collective workplace disputes and dealing with requests in
regards to unfair dismissal (australia.gov.au, 2019). The functions includes the varying
awards for wage structure, approval of industrial agreements, resolution of disputes as well as
the handling of unfair dismissal activity. The act is considered as the successor body of the
Australian Industrial Relations Commission. The purpose of the paper is to understand the
role of the Fair Work Commission as well as to assess the efficiency in regards with the
modern awards in Australia. The paper will be concluded by presenting the summary of the
key roles of Fair Work Commission in Australian employment relations system.
The initiation of functions as well as the activities undertaken by Fair Work
Commission is facilitated when an individual lodges a request. The requests should be in the
correct form of Commission as well as lodged in regards with the 2013 rules and procedure
of Fair Work Commission (australia.gov.au, 2019). Commission deals with the applications
by undertaking activities for responding to a request (australia.gov.au, 2019). The actions
includes informal dispute resolution by referring the applications/requests to a specific staff
conciliator, by allotting directions for dealing an application. It also includes requesting
individuals with an application for appearing before the Fair Work Commission. The
Commission also invites submission in writing or verbal form followed by taking evidences
(Australian Human Rights Commission, 2016). The Commission conducts conferences, holds
hearings as well as take decisions. The Fair Work Commission can terminate
applications/requests in specific circumstances (australia.gov.au, 2019).

2EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS
The Fair Work Act 2009 set out the independent statutory body, Fair Work
Commission. The services of the Fair Work Commission are free for all the employees as
well as the workers in Australia. The key role of the Commission is to ensure agreement with
the laws of Australian workplace (australia.gov.au, 2019). Another major role is to promote
productive, cooperative and harmonious employee relations. The role also involves
monitoring specific 482 and 457 subclass agreements for Visa. The services includes
educating and training people in Australia about the fair work practices, obligations as well as
the rights of the employees (australia.gov.au, 2019). The system also facilitates the single
point contact in regards with the timely and well as the reliable information about the
employee relations system of Australia. It ensures the assessment of various discrepancy as
well as the suspected breaches in regards with the laws, registered agreements as well as the
awards of the workplace as well as few of the Fair Work Commission orders. It attempts to
build effective and strong relationships with all the industries, stakeholders as well as the
unions operating in Australia (australia.gov.au, 2019).
The roles of Fair Work Commission also includes providing fair opportunities for all
employees/workers in Australia for putting forward their discrepancy cases as well as
ensuring a fair dealing of the cases. It ensures fair and just practices. The Commission acts
quickly for the submission of applications (Stanford, Hardy & Stewart, 2018). The Fair Work
Commission plays a transparent and informal role for the motive of promoting cooperative as
well as harmonious workplace as well as the employee relations (Stanford, Hardy & Stewart,
2018). The role of the Fair Work Commission also includes the practice of Conciliation,
which is considered as the alternative of dispute resolution. An informal, flexible as well as
the quick procedure of dispute resolution is known as Conciliation. In the case of
Conciliation, the role of the Fair Work Commission is to appoint senior staff for the purpose
of assisting employees and employers for putting forwards various manners for resolving
dispute by themselves in regards with the termination of employment (Ross AO, 2016). The