Employment Relations: Australia vs. China: A Comparative Analysis

This essay provides a comparative analysis of the employment relations systems in Australia and China. It begins by introducing the concept of employment and its key actors: the state, unions, and employers, discussing their roles and responsibilities. The essay then contrasts the economic landscapes of Australia and China, highlighting differences in employment rates, labor laws, and worker protections. It delves into specific aspects such as worker compensation, legal frameworks, union roles, and economic indicators like the Gini coefficient and price levels. The comparison covers various facets, including employment contracts, retirement ages, and the treatment of foreign workers. The analysis reveals significant disparities in labor practices and economic structures, ultimately providing a critical evaluation of the employment systems in both nations.

Running Head: EMPLOYMEN RELATIONS 0
[School]
[Course title]
COMPANY LAW
AUSTRALIA

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Introduction
In this essay, the Australian employment system of Australia will be compared, and
critically evaluated with that of the Chinese Employment system. In Asia, China is considered as
one of the largest economically developed area. Employment would be discussed on the basis of
its actors such as the State, Union and Employers, and then contractions will also be made under
the same head. But to proceed with the essay firstly all the relevant facts would be discussed and
then it will move forward with the comparison and contrasting part, which is to be critically
emphasized upon.
Firstly employment is considered as a relationship which is framed between two or more
parties, which is usually based upon the terms of contract. Here one party pays off for the work
done to another party and is done mostly for earning profits and fulfilling the needs of the
individuals. Employees and employer’s relationship are seen in the workforce area along with
the terms of contract, related issues, globalization etc.
Employment Actors
The essential actors of employment are employers, state and union. Employers are
represented by the managements in the employment relationships. They are responsible and
answerable to the various shareholders and the employees in an organization. The management
has to look after the following terms of the employee and employer relationships in an
organization such as generating and nourishing motivation in the employees, ensuring
commitments out of them, attaining maximum efficiency level etc. all these was determined by a
very famous philosopher Cole in one of its article. The major objective of this association are to

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represent collective bargaining at the national and international level, development of the
machinery for the avoidance of disputes etc. (Bamber, 2016).
The state plays a very essential role in the matters of the employment. This role keeps on
changing in accordance with the changing environment of this sector. One of the best example is
that there was an adoption of Laissez faire throughout the world. It is the state which settles
down all the disputes held between the employees and employers. The unions share a very
essential role in the employment sector. They resolves the issues by being the voice of the
employees and also acts as the bargaining representatives at the time of negotiations in the
bargaining. (Cooke, 2017) They are also helpful in assuring that the employees meet their
minimum level of obligations etc.
Australia v China
Economic growth, employment and non-employment of the people of the nation, quality
of life lead by them, the environment in which they reside, the amount of healthcare and
education provided to the people by their government etc. are some of the important aspects
which are to be taken due care while establishing the comparison between the economies of
Australia and China. For attaining the best for their societies both Australia and China has got
their economic system which is very different from each other. But economy of Australia is more
towards success as compared to that of China’s and this is because according to the writers of the
right wing value system which helps in measuring the efficacy of the environment, resources of
labors and entrepreneurial efficiency and lastly the standard of living (countryeconomy, 2019).
In accordance with the World Bank collection of indicators of development along with
the officially recognized sources the total amount of employment in China was 26.62% in the
year 2017. Employees here are the persons who worked for the employers of the public or

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private sector for certain sum of amount in terms of salaries, wages, commissions, tips etc. their
employment sector includes mining as well as quarrying, manufacturing, works of constructions
and other utilities of the public such as gas, electricity and water (Metcalfe, 2019).
Whereas in Australia, according to Australian Bureau of statistics i.e. ABS the employed
persons are those who are above the age of 15 years and seeks to work for earning wages in any
business or farm, worked in family farm or business without any payments or were the
employees or involved in the self-earning works which are held up on the temporary basis or are
been closed. Labor force surveys are conducted by the ABS for releasing the data in connection
with employments throughout (Metcalfe, 2019).
In Australia workers get compensation if they are injured at the workplace i.e. if a worker
is injured then he/she is provided with a paid time off from the work until the recovery. Whereas
there is no such compensation provided to the workers in China yet. No protection can be seen
for the workers working in a workplace (Gilfillan, 2016).
According to the employment laws of Australia a person alone cannot move an item
which is more than 25 kg without the help of others, whereas in China it is not illegal. In China
workers are just trying to prove themselves better as compared to that of their competitors, but in
Australia the workers are preferred not to do any such act which may hurt them (gov, 2019).
The employment law in Australia categorizes workers under the following head i.e.
employees, sole traders, directors, corporation officers, independent contractors. According to
the Federal Fair Work Act 2009 there are certain rights and obligations which are imposed upon
the employees which includes NES i.e. National Employment Standards which sets all the terms,
conditions and matters related to leaves and working hours (gov, 2019). It also sets out the
employments and entitlements related to the workers working in an institution. It sets up

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framework for collective bargaining, protect the workers and the union form the unfair
dismissals and other illegal acts done against them.
The State and territory of Australia provides it worker employment legislations such as
health and safety in the occupational area, compensation to the workers, and equal opportunity to
all the workers irrespective of their color, sex, caste and class, antidiscrimination etc.
Government has implemented a number of schemes and incentive programs which further
includes wages for restarting, aiding the employers in making new changes and bringing the
required changes in force and also supports the business conducted by the indigenous people in
Australia (SCUTT , 2019).
There is no retirement age for any employee or the employer in the Australian
Employment Laws. But the director of the company has to be minimums of 18 years of the age.
Neither there are any restrictions based on nationality nor if any such discrimination is imposed
then it could be held unlawful. Any person who is involved in decision making of the company
may it to be the directors, unions or any other officer have to be very fit for doing so and must
not be held disqualified from doing so under any law prevailing in Australia. In accordance with
the Federal Fair Work Act 2009, in Australia the employers are required to provide a written
contracts to all its employees along with all the relevant information regarding the work done by
the federal government.
In China the foreign nationals can work in two ways under the People’s Republic of
China i.e. by direct hiring and secondment. Under direct hiring the terms of employment
includes the contractual execution of the employment, their rest and vacations, social insurances
and clauses for terminations. Whereas under secondment clause the following matters relating to

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the employment clause are imposed i.e. minimum wages, hours of work, entitlements of
holidays, safety and hygiene of the workers and lastly the work permits and social insurances.
Under PRC Laws the workers are categorized as the related persons, nationals of foreign
without any work permit, students who works as interns and lastly freelancers. All the services
here can be governed by the terms of the contract law, which are to be freely agreed by the
parties. Government provides the employers with extra tax preferences for hiring the disabled or
unemployed peoples (Gilfillan, 2016). Here there is no special restriction on the age limit of the
directors and other officials of the employment but there are usual restrictions which may be
imposed on them like there is a rule that a men can work till the age of 60 and women till the age
of 55. A director of a company is not regarded as its employees is not subject to any kind of
retirement policy (Metcalfe, 2019).
Though there is no restriction on the nationality of the workers but still the foreign
workers need certain kind of permits for proceeding with their profession. Under the Company
law of PCR a person who does not follows the civil code of conduct or sentenced to prison or has
served a company which was insolvent or has violated certain laws of the nation or is undergoing
certain amount of debts cannot serve a company as its manager, employer, employee or the part
of a union under it (Lorenz, 2017).
There must be execution of a written contract between the employee and the employer
which must contain all the relevant details regarding the employee along with entire description
of the job profile, their working hours, and remuneration, social insurances provided to them as
well as all the other protections and safeguards under the applicable laws of the land (DI, 2018).
Unions plays a very essential role in every workplace. In Australia unions helps the
employees in a workplace by becoming their voice, they becomes their advocates at the time of

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need and also helps them to, meet their basic and sensible obligations. Here unions may be
referred to as trade unions as well as the Labour unions. It may also be considered as that
organization of workers who joins together to attain a common goal. Whereas in China the role
of unions is not that polished or outraged.
In China the central power and the government takes all the essential decisions regarding
the productions and investment matters, therefore it can be said that it has a commanding
economy. Where as in Australia the presence of mixed market economy in noticed. This means
slight planning in regards with the economy is done by the involvement of the government where
the other is dictated by the private sector of the economy.
In Australia around 3.6% of people are involved in the primary sector i.e. agriculture,
21.1 % employed in secondary sector i.e. workforces, while the remaining 75% of the population
is involved in tertiary sector such as services and tourism (profile, 2016). But in China on the
other hand the division of population in three sectors seems to be equally done such as 36.7%
working in the primary sector, 28.7% doing secondary jobs and the remaining people i.e. 34.6%
employed in the tertiary sectors of the economy.
For the contrasting part the Gini coefficient which is considered as a measure of income
distribution and here it is seen that more income is represented by the lower incomes and the
higher by the uneven distributions of income. Gini coefficient seems to be decreasing in
Australia i.e. 0.307, but it seemed increasing in China i.e. 0.415 (countryeconomy, 2019).
Overall price rates in China are lesser as compared to that of Australia. In Accord with the
statistics it is seen that in China the prices paid by the consumers are 60.38% more as compared
to that of Australia, whereas the prices of rent in China are 66.90% lower than that of Australia
(gov, 2019).

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Conclusion
Hence to sum up with the above essay it can be determined that while comparing and
contrasting the employment sector of Australia and China through critical evaluation, the
difference in the economies of both the nation were reflected and it was seen that as all the other
economies the Australian as well as the Chinese economies are also facing all the ups and
downs, in their nations. In Australia it was seen that government tends to rule above all the
sectors and there was irregular settings or divisions of work in all the three sectors there, whereas
in China the work was a short of equally divided amongst the three sectors etc. employment
sector in both the economies are working for providing their people better welfare, proper
education, fulfilling the basic needs of their people and lastly to provide a high standard of
living.

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References
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crisis involving multiple actors. International Journal of Business Communication,,
53(3), 343-366.
Cooke, F. L. (2017). The growth of non‐standard employment in Japan and South Korea: the role
of institutional actors and impact on workers and the labour market. Asia Pacific Journal
of Human Resources,, 55(2), 155-176.
countryeconomy. (2019). Country comparison Australia vs China. Retrieved from
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DI, Y. (2018). China’s Employment Policies and Strategies . Retrieved from Chinese Academy
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http://www.oecd.org/employment/emp/37865430.pdf
Gilfillan, G. (2016, 06). Employment in Australia. Retrieved from Parliament of Australia:
https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/
Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook45p/EmploymentAustralia
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https://www.dss.gov.au/our-responsibilities/settlement-services/working-in-australia
Lorenz, V. (2017, 05 18). Employment in China - Statistics & Facts. Retrieved from Statista:
https://www.statista.com/topics/1317/employment-in-china/
Metcalfe, L. (2019). Economy Stats: compare key data on Australia & China. Retrieved from
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Economy

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profile. (2016). Australia Employment status. Retrieved from . Id The Population Expert:
https://profile.id.com.au/australia/employment-status
SCUTT , D. (2019, 02 21). Australian jobs growth surges again. Retrieved from Business
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