Employment Relations: Fair Work Act and Labour Market Changes

This essay explores the significant role of the Australian government in shaping employment relations, particularly through the Fair Work Act. It examines the pluralist theory of employment, highlighting the balance between corporate interests and trade unions. The essay delves into the Act's impact on the labor market, especially considering the shift from blue-collar to white-collar jobs due to globalization. It outlines the Act's key provisions, including minimum wage, anti-discrimination measures, workplace safety, and employee benefits like maternity leave. The role of the Fair Work Commission in safeguarding employee interests and establishing national employment standards is also discussed. Furthermore, the essay addresses the issue of discrimination in the workplace and the Act's efforts to promote fairness and transparency in employment practices. The conclusion emphasizes the Act's influence on employee-employer relationships and its relevance in both Australian and global business contexts, underscoring the importance of providing employees with freedom and flexibility for organizational prosperity. The essay is supported by references to academic sources, providing a comprehensive analysis of the Fair Work Act's implications.

Running Head: EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS
EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS
Name of the Student:
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Author Note:

1EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS
Government plays a significant role in influencing the relationship between corporate
organisations and the interests of the workers. In fact, in the liberal market also there are certain
legislative proceedings and norms that the business organisations have to follow in order to do
business within the nation. Impact of globalisation also a significant factor that makes the
government more concern about creating a healthy business market where interests of both the
entities will be served. From that point of view, this essay aims to discuss the impact of Fair
Work Act of Australian on the labour market and the way it brought up significant changes in the
employment relation.
As far as the employment relation in Australia is concerned, a pluralist theory of
employment relation is existed within the market that connotes equal existence of the power of
both the corporate firms and the trade unions. According to Creighton and McCrystal (2017) the
pluralist theory of employment relation strongly support the amicable relationship between the
trade unions and the organisational management as both the authorities are entitled to put great
thrust on the betterment of the employees. Moreover, the role of the management is resembled
with coordinating, communicating and persuading the employees rather than command or
control. Pekarek et al. (2017) articulated that the pluralist theory projects a benevolent approach
of the business firms and effectively aligned it with the motive of the trade unions. In this regard,
the government also plays a very significant role in order to enacting the regulations that are
abided by both the employees and the organisations. The research of Charlesworth and
Macdonald (2015) confirmed that the role of the government is not only enacting and amending
the legal process but it is also the responsibility of the government to ensure a healthy business
environment that influences both the organisation and the employees positively. It results a better

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communication and understanding between the elements and bring prosperity to the national
economy.
In case of Australian labour market, there are two types of job opportunities in terms of
the white collar jobs and the blue collar jobs. The white collar jobs are defined as the
management and professional tasks whereas the blue collar jobs identifies the clerical and labour
jobs like driving, operations and so on. The research of Peetz (2016) pointed out that before the
advent of globalisation, the Australian market was dominated by the blue collar jobs. Therefore,
most of the preferences and focus was on the drivers and labourers. The coming of globalisation
turned upside down and white collar profession got the opportunity to establish their power. As
globalisation elevated competition in the market therefore recruiting professionals had become a
pertinent matter for the organisations. This rapid change in the employment initiated high
interference of the government to implement a number of regulations that could influence the
organisational objectives ad employee interests predominantly. Specific regulations were made
for the benefits of the employee and government came forward to provide a safety and
safeguarding the interests of the workers. Naturally, the benevolent approach of government
rendered series of new measures for the development of the employees. Gradually, the
importance and significance of the trade union became faded away subsequently.
In this context, the role of the Fair Work Commission is paramount that entitles to
safeguard the interests of the employees effectively and provide enormous privileges for making
a better working environment for the workers. The motive of the Fair Work Commission is to
plan a set of rules for not only the employees but the employers and organisation also that is
resembled with the practice of employment (legislation.gov.au, 2019). For employment a
national standard is defined within the act that helps both the employees and employers to bring

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more transparency into the matter of employment. Therefore, the Fair Work Act encompasses
both the fundamental and exclusive rights of the employees in a globalised business
environment.
As far as the fundamental rights of employees are concerned, Fair Work Act sets the
minimum wage order for the benefit of the employees. As a result of that the exploitative nature
of the employers can be checked with an equal remuneration order. Anti-discrimination is
considered to be the most important facet for the establishment of Fair Work Act (Farbenblum &
Berg, 2017). Therefore, equal measures for making payments to employees and deduction of
payments are also set on equal judgements. In addition to this, protection of workplace rights and
freedom of association are also encouraged by the act in accordance with the protection from
discrimination. Moreover, the termination of employment procedure is also accounted in the Fair
Work Act that manages to keep a quality and transparent employment practice across the
country. The workplace healthy and safety norms are also incorporated into the act that compels
the organisation to conduct thorough research on workplace safety measures.
In association to this, there are some special or exclusive privileges that the Fair work Act
also offers to the employees in terms of maternity leaves, and superannuation funds for creating
financial security for the employees. A compensation period should also be included with the
organisational framework in case of the employees will absent from work due to illness or
personal injury. Furthermore, the Fair Work Commission defines the modern awards in terms of
as per the enterprise agreements. Section 55 of the act also refers to the conditions and provision
that the corporate firms must implement on the basis of the national employment standards
(Clibborn & Wright, 2018).

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Based on the research of Forsyth et al. (2017) it can be argued that discrimination is
referred as one of the most important threat the employees will face in their professional life.
Discrimination can be seen in terms of uneven payment structure in a same designation. It is a
popular practice in Australian business organisations to discriminate the employees on the basis
of race and colour. The aboriginal Australians and the Torres Strait Islanders was the main
victim of organisational decimation. Therefore, the Fair Work Commission put a great deal of
focus on any cases of discrimination. In fact, the Fair Work Act encouraged the business
organisations to plan and use the anti-discriminatory policy in the business activities. It can also
be seen in case of the reward strategy where the entire reward system is on the hand of the
organisation and it is beyond the jurisdiction of Fair Work Commission. However, there are
some regulations that the act is set in terms of proposing that the conditions of the reward
strategy should be direct and transparent. As a result of that a fair work environment can be
established where both the organisation and the employees can fulfil their interests equally.
From the above discussion, it can be derived that the Fair Work Act creates a great
influence on the relationship between employee and employers by mentioning the basic rights
and privileges that the employees should get. A role of the government is pertinent in this respect
to create such a extensive and elaborate framework that can fulfil both the interests of the
workers and the organisation. The Fair Work Act is not only effective for Australian business
environment but it is also relevant in the global business framework where the employees and
the employers as well can get benefits from effective employment relationship. In fact, providing
adequate freedom and flexibility to the employees also bring prosperity for the organisation.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the easy true justifies the existence of Fair Work Act in the
context of Australian business environment.

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Reference
Charlesworth, S., & Macdonald, F. (2015). Women, work and industrial relations in Australia in
2014. Journal of Industrial Relations, 57(3), 366-382.
Clibborn, S., & Wright, C. F. (2018). Employer theft of temporary migrant workers’ wages in
Australia: Why has the state failed to act?. The Economic and Labour Relations
Review, 29(2), 207-227.
Creighton, B., & McCrystal, S. (2017). Esso Australia Pty Ltd v. the Australian Workers' Union:
Breaches of Orders, Coercion and Protected Industrial Action under the Fair Work Act 2009
(Cth). Sydney L. Rev., 39, 233.
Farbenblum, B., & Berg, L. (2017). Migrant workers’ access to remedy for exploitation in Australia:
the role of the national Fair Work Ombudsman. Australian Journal of Human Rights, 23(3),
310-331.
Forsyth, A., Howe, J., Gahan, P., & Landau, I. (2017). Establishing the Right to Bargain Collectively
in Australia and the UK: Are Majority Support Determinations under Australia’s Fair Work
Act a More Effective Form of Union Recognition?. Industrial Law Journal, 46(3), 335-365.
legislation.gov.au. (2019). Fair Work Act 2009. Retrieved from
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018C00512
Peetz, D. (2016). Industrial action, the right to strike, ballots and the Fair Work Act in international
context. Australian Journal of Labour Law, 29(2), 133-153.

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Pekarek, A., Landau, I., Gahan, P., Forsyth, A., & Howe, J. (2017). Old game, new rules? The
dynamics of enterprise bargaining under the Fair Work Act. Journal of Industrial
Relations, 59(1), 44-64.