UNSW Handbook Course - Workplace Law

Workplace Law - LAWS8239


	Faculty: Faculty of Law
	School: Faculty of Law
	Course Outline: See below
	Campus: Kensington Campus
	Career: Postgraduate
	Units of Credit: 6
	EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
	Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2
	Enrolment Requirements:
	Prerequisite: Academic Program must be either 9200, 9210, 5740 or 9230
	Excluded: JURD7339
	Fee Band: 3 (more info)
	Further Information: See Class Timetable

Description

Workplace Law examines the regulatory regime created by the Federal Fair Work Act 2009, a statute of both continuity and innovation in its approach to workplace relations. This course commences by framing the new law in the context of both international labour standards and comparative systems, and then proceeds to examine its key features, institutions and processes, with a firm emphasis on the dynamics and regulation of the bargaining process.

LLM Specialisations

TBA

Recommended Prior Knowledge

A basic knowledge of Australian employment law

Course Objectives

This course aims to give students:

an appreciation of the social, political and economic context of workplace relations laws;
an international and comparative perspective for evaluating the centrepiece Australian statute governing workplace relations, the Fair Work Act 2009;
a conceptual framework for understanding the Act;
a working knowledge of the key dynamics of workplace rights and especially workplace bargaining as regulated by the Act;
a good grasp of the developing case law on the new legislation.

Main Topics

International and comparative labour law perspectives as a prelude to any consideration of the Fair Work Act and its sponsored bargaining process
The claims of the statute as expressed in its objects (“to provide a balanced framework for cooperative and productive relations”) measured against the machinery it creates
The base of statutory rights represented by National Employment Standards, Modern Awards and “general protections”
The minimum wage regime
The dynamics of a unique formula on workplace bargaining, characterised by, amongst other things, an enterprise level focus, collective rights for employees, an agency role for unions, limited right of entry provisions, good faith bargaining obligations, a limited right to take industrial action, mediation and limited arbitration
The supervisory roles of Fair Work Australia and the Fair Work Ombudsman
Transfers of business
The emerging jurisprudence on the new legislation

Assessment

Class attendance and participation:	20%
Class presentation:	20%
Essay:	60%

Course Texts

Prescribed

None

Recommended

A Bronstein International and Comparative Labour Law – Current Challenges (Palgrave MacMillan, International Labour Organisation, 2009)
A Forsyth & A Stewart (eds) Fair Work – the New Workplace Laws and the Work Choices Legacy (The Federation Press, 2009)

Order from UNSW Bookshop

Resources

A course pack of articles and cases will be available for purchase from the UNSW bookshop at the beginning of 2010. Refer to the course outline which will be provided by the lecturer at that time.

Further information

The course will be run in an intensive format to suit, especially, students in legal practice. There will be an initial introductory and framing session of two hours on Monday, 1 March 2010 from 5 to 7 PM, followed by two whole-day block teaching session on Friday 12 March and Saturday 13 March, and then on Friday 26 March and Saturday 27 March.