Workplace Law - LAWS8239
Faculty: Faculty of Law
School: Faculty of Law
Course Outline: See below
Campus: Sydney
Career: Postgraduate
Units of Credit: 6
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2
Enrolment Requirements:
Academic Program must be either 9200, 9210, 5740, 9230, 9231 or 5231
Excluded: JURD7339
CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)
Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule
Further Information: See Class Timetable
View course information for previous years.
Description
LLM Specialisations
Recommended Prior Knowledge
Course Objectives
- 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 developing jurisprudence
Assessment
Class attendance and participation: | 20% |
Class presentation: | 20% |
Essay: | 60% |
Course Texts
Prescribed
- None. Articles and cases for this course will be available on Blackboard prior to the commencement of the semester. Refer to the course outline for further details.
- B Creighton & A Stewart, Labour Law (5 ed or latest, Federation Press)
- 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)
Further Information