Employment Relations in the Context of Fair Work Austral Act 2009 - Essay Example

Employment Relations Name of Student: Course Code: Instructors Name: Date of Submission: Employment Relations Employment relations is a subject which is focussed on the study of the relationship between employers and employees in the workplace. Owning to the high influence which employment relations have on labour, governments and other national authorities have always tried to establish appropriate policies which are enable industries come up with effective employment practices. Looking at the Australian context, it can be acknowledged that the Australian government has always striven to come up with the most effective employment relation policies (Mitchell et al 2010, p.2). The earliest employment relations policy in the country was established in 1904 under the name Common wealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904 and was governed by the commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration. The most recent policy is the Fair Work 2009 Act which was established in 2009 and enforced by the Fair Work Commission (Fair Work Australia Commission 2009a, p.1). Over the development in industrial management policies, it can be appreciated that the employment relations policies have gradually shifted from unitarist approached to pluralist policies. The reduced focus from single authorities in unitarism theory based policies to the multiple allegiances for employees in pluralist approaches is a manifestation of this transformation (Ross & Bamber 2009, p.25). The following essay will analyze the theoretical assumptions that the newly elected government brings to employment relations based on their statements about the workplace and employment relations during the election campaign. The paper will also discuss some implications of this perspective. For a start, it is important to note that the new coalition government is focussed on increasing national productivity (Peetz 2008, p.1). According to statements made by Abbott during his presidential campaigns, it can be acknowledged that the newly elected government has sought to amend industrial relations policies so as to increase productivity. In his campaign speeches Abbott claimed that the current labor laws do not enhance productivity in the country. This is the first assumption which the newly elected government has made on employment relations; that involving the government's hand in negotiations would increase productivity. In its proposed policies, the newly elected government seeks to enact a clause which ensures that all collective bargaining activities take consideration of productivity before any deal is sealed (Berg 2013, p.1). The assumption of the government is that production will increase. However, such a move waters down all the achievements which have been made so far. Firstly, such a move tends to return the country’s labor relations back to the unitarism approaches which were used by pervious employment relations policies. This is because of the fact that the proposed policy is due to bind the employees and ultimately the labour unions to show allegiance to employers.on this point, it is important to note that productivity is a factor which is key to employers. By enacting a clause in industrial relations which subjects employees to show allegiance to employers by emphasizing this factor in a collective bargaining agreement, the government is in a way shifting the employment relations paradigmatically from unitarsim to pluralistic approaches. Contrary to the government’s assumptions that such a move would increase productivity, the move is counterproductive since it infringes on the rights of employees in addition to those of labor unions. Another assumption of the newly elected government is that employers are not able to defend themselves from the employees (Peetz 2008, p.1). On this point, it may be argued that the main reason as to why the government seeks to introduce a policy which makes it a must for productivity to be discussed by the employers and employees before any collective bargaining agreement is sealed is a move which seeks to secure the employers from the harsh labour unions. Therefore, the assumptions of the government are that the employees cannot take care of themselves, hence the need to protect the legally from the labor unions. This is not the case. Under the previous employment relations act, the Fair Work Act 2009, collective bargain agreements was only sealed when it was identified that the collective bargaining activities were based on good faith. In so doing, neither of the parties would propagate it’s selfish motives by engaging the other party in misdirected negotiations. Ideally, this was a major achievement in collective bargaining activities in Australian industrial relations. However, the proposed policy assumes that the employers were not protected from employees; a factor which influenced productivity negatively. Contrary to this, the newly elected government should acknowledge that the country’s productivity has been rising steadily; a fact which refutes their assumption. The other assumption which the newly elected government has is that the current wage and salary scales in Australia has impacted negatively on productivity in the country. According to the speeches made key men in the newly elected government, Australia was been overran by the wage bill. The steady wage rise of 3.2% to 3.5 % is a point of concern for the country (Peetz 2013, p.1). According to the Abbott government, there is a need to regulate the wage bill by enacting legislative measures in industrial relations acts (Grattan 2013, p.1). This is contrary to the factual data on the ground. Australias is one of the countries in the world which enjoys a relatively stable wage bill. In fact, it is inappropriate to claim that the country is being overran by the wage bill. Based on the newly elected government’s notion,. The low productivity in the country is as a result of the wage bill. A move to enact legislative measure which would reduce the wage bill in the country would cause tremors in the industry and lost is due to suffer a major blow, hence leading to reduced productivity. Lastly, the newly elected government assumes that binding collective bargaining agreements to productivity would see the drastic reduction of loss of time and bargains in the country. According to the Abbot government, a reduction in the lost time during industrial actions would lead to increased productivity. On this point, it is important to point out that such a move is repressive to labour unions in the country (Mac 2013, p.1). In addition to this, it can be noted that such a move tends to return the country’s industrial relations back to its old days when the employees had reduced abilities to fight for their rights. Contrary to the arguments that the newly elected government has assumptions which are due to impact negatively on employment relations, it is worthy pointing out several positive impacts which the proposed employment relations act would impact on industrial relations. Firstly, the proposed policies would be able to safeguard employees in the so called dangerous occupations from ill motivated employees (Peetz 2013, p.1). On this point, it can be noted that most of these people are lured into engaging in dangerous activities such as driving long hours without sleep for the case of truck drivers by the use of pay incentives. Under the proposed policies, employers would have to consider the safety of their employees and not just a factor in pay and wage incentives in the employment package. In so doing, the employment relations policies would have taken care of such employees. Secondly, the proposed employment relations policy would have a positive impact on the country’s production. This is because of the fact that the proposed policies would require that the involved parties factor in aspects of productions before striking any deal (Grahan 2013, p.1). The previous Fair Work Austral Act 2009 was often criticized for having given employees a productivity free deal. On this point, the act was criticized of having not taken into consideration productivity, which is key operational element of any industry; hence tending to compromise the country’s productivity. However, the newly elected government seeks to factor in productivity in the collective bargaining activities, hence ensuring that productivity of the country is not held at ransom by labor and trade unions. Lastly, it can be noted that the proposed policy has great packages for the family men and women. The proposed introduction of the paid parental leave program would ensure that employees would have a chance to take care of their families, This would in turn impact postivley to families which have sufferd drastically due to employemnet related concerns. All in all, it is important to note that the proposed changes to the employment relations policies needs to be evaluated so as to ensure that the country does not sink back to the old repressive industrial relations. Concluding, it can be noted from this paper that the newly elected Australian government has made several assumptions with respect to employment relations in the country. The paper has identified that the government seeks to increase the country’s productivity by changing the current employment relations. Under the proposed policies, trade unions would have to consider productivity in their collective blogging activities. As seen from the essay, such a move tends to repress the trade and labor movements; hence tends to reduce the productivity of the country in the long run. The essay has given several implications of the assumptions and also given counter arguments on the same. Summing up, it is important that the government redrafts its employment relations policies so as not to make such assumptions which would ultimately render the country unproductive. . References Berg 2013, p.1. A nanny State of IR Policy Is The Liberal Choice, ABC, Retrieved on 25th September 2013 from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-27/berg-industrial-relations/4914682 Fair Work Australia Commission 2009b. History, Retrieved on 2nd September 2013 from http://www.fwc.gov.au/index.cfm?pagename=abouthistory Grattan, M., 2013. Abbott Announces Soft Touch Workplace Policy, The Conversation, http://theconversation.com/abbott-announces-soft-touch-workplace-policy-14085 Grahan,P., 2013. Rudd’s Economic Blueprint Is A Timely Election Pitch To Business, http://theconversation.com/rudds-economic-blueprint-is-a-timely-election-pitch-to-business-16000 Mac, P., 2013. Calls for return of repressive industrial relations laws, The Guardian, Retrieved on 25nd September 2013 from http://www.cpa.org.au/guardian/2013/1611/08-calls-for-return.html Mitchell et al 2010. The Evolution of Labour Law in Australia: Measuring the Change, Australian Journal of Labour Law , Vol 23, no. 1, pp. 1-31 Peetz, D., 2008. Coalition’s productivity obsession makes for flawed IR policy, Retrieved on 23rd September 2013 from http://theconversation.com/coalitions-productivity-obsession-makes-for-flawed-ir-policy-14145 Peetz, D., 2013. Factcheck Q&A: Are Wages Steady, Disputes Down And Productivity Up? http://theconversation.com/factcheck-qanda-are-wages-steady-disputes-down-and-productivity-up-17516 Read More