Revision/SAC preparation

These slides will be up on the legal studies wikispace:

www.scottlegalstudies.wikispaces.com

Goal

• This slide show is about going over what we have covered in class so far. This is for a number of reasons including:– Refreshing our memories from last term– Preparing for the SAC– Outlining areas you think you may need to revise,

work on or catch up on– Revising key terminology (also good for the SAC)

Workplace Laws

• You should understand:– PURPOSE– AIM– What they are and why we have them.

Some ideas….?

Workplace Laws

• We have them:– To ensure rights and responsibilities– To stop issues or unfair treatment arising in the

workplace– To keep employers and employees in check– To create a safe and enjoyable working

environment for all

• What are workplace relations about?

Workplace relations

• Workplace relations are about the negotiations between employer and employees on their conditions of employment. These include types of employment, wages and work conditions.

Legislation and changes

• Workplace relations are based around legislations that have constantly changed. For these reasons we looked at the history of workplace relations.

• What kind of changes have occurred?

Legislation and changes

• In 1901 we became a federation and the constitution was created. This gave the Commonwealth Parliament the power to make laws in relation to industrial disputes.

• In 1904 the Commonwealth Government passed the Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904.

• What is an award?

Legislation and changes• An award stipulates a basic minimum wage and conditions that

an employer must provide to employees. Some of the provisions of this act included:• preventing lock-outs and strikes in relation to industrial disputes• creating the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration

(later renamed the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission), designed to settle disputes in the workplace where employees are prevented from working, the making and enforcing of agreements between employers and employees in relation to disputes

• A system of awards for particular occupations was established about three years later.

Legislation and changes

• Industrial Relations Act 1988• Renamed the Conciliation and Arbitration

Commission as the Australian Industrial Relations Commissions (AIRC). It also established certified enterprise agreements, also known as enterprise bargaining agreements, which were agreements made between an employer and employees (represented by their union) about pay and conditions. Once agreed upon, agreements were sent to the AIRC to be certified.

Legislation and changes• Workplace Relations Act 1996• It continued some of the provisions contained in the Industrial

Relations Act, but also introduced some new workplace relations concepts

• The Workplace Relations Act aimed to encourage employers and employees to negotiate with each other, rather than governments deciding what wages and conditions should be provided to employees

• The Workplace Relations Act introduced ‘Australian Workplace Agreements’ or AWAs. AWAs were individual formal contracts negotiated without the assistance of a trade union which stated the terms and conditions of employment. An AWA was able to override certain employment conditions

• The Workplace Relations Act also limited the involvement and effectiveness of unions by placing some restrictions on union activity and expanding the use of enterprise bargaining agreements.

Legislation• WorkChoices• The Workplace Relations Amendment (WorkChoices) Act 2005, it came

into effect in March 2006 and involved many controversial amendments to the Workplace Relations Act. It was introduced by the then Howard Government in 2005 and was promoted as improving national economic performance.

• Some of the amendments that the WorkChoices legislation made to the Workplace Relations Act included:• establishment of a body known as the Australian Fair Pay Commission (AFPC) to decide minimum wages• further promoting AWAs, and increasing the maximum life of an AWA to five years• exempting companies with fewer than 100 employees from unfair dismissal laws• outlawing industry-wide industrial action.

Legislation• Fair Work Act 2009• On 20 March 2009, the Senate passed the Fair Work Act 2009, which

completely abolished WorkChoices.• Some of the changes included:

• abolishing AWAs, with only those AWAs created prior to the Fair Work Act remaining in place and lasting only the lifetime of the agreement• increasing the ability of employees to bring unfair dismissal claims against an employer by restoring the protection against unfair dismissal if they have worked for that employer for more than six months. If the organisation has less than 15 employees, then the employee must have worked there for a minimum of 12 months in order to make an unfair dismissal complaint• increasing the number of minimum employment conditions from five to 10, now called the National Employment Standards (NES)• increasing unions’ ability to become involved in enterprise bargaining• creating a new federal body called Fair Work Australia, designed to unify and centralise all authorities dealing with federal workplace laws.

Fair Pay and Work Conditions

• The Fair Work Act 2009 governs the requirement for employers to provide fair pay and good working conditions for all employees.

• The Fair Work Act 2009 established 10 national employment standards (NES). Employees are covered by the NES regardless of whether they are on an award, individual contract or collective agreement, as long as they are covered by the national workplace system.

• Can we remember any of the different ways pay is determined?

Fair Pay and Work Conditions

• Fair pay• Under the current laws, a person’s pay is

determined by one of the following:• modern award• enterprise bargaining agreement• individual contract

Modern award

• An employee’s pay could be determined by a modern award, which establishes the minimum wages that must be paid to a person in a particular industry. The modern award will also set out what overtime rates, penalties and allowances will be paid to an employee, the superannuation benefits he or she will receive, and the amount of leave the person will receive.

• We looked into this on the FWA website where you looked up hairdressers and a few others of choice

Enterprise bargaining agreement

• A collective agreement, also called an enterprise bargaining agreement, is an agreement made between employers and employees, often represented by a union, about wages and conditions.

• A collective agreement, also called an enterprise bargaining agreement, is an agreement made between employers and employees, often represented by a union, about wages and conditions. Once the agreement has been accepted by the employees and their employer, it is sent to Fair Work Australia for approval.

Individual Contracts• Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) are no longer in

place (other than those that commenced prior to the passing of the Fair Work Act) and cannot be entered into. The only form of individual agreement that can still be entered into when commencing with a new employer is a common law contract. This is a contract between employer and employee, which does not have to be sent to a body such as Fair Work Australia for approval.

• The contract must, however, still conform with modern awards in that it must pay at or above the wage levels set out in the award for that industry.

Consequences

• The Fair Work Act sets out various remedies and penalties if an employer fails to abide by workplace laws relating to fair pay and work conditions. Action can be taken by Fair Work Australia in the Federal Court or the Magistrates’ Court. A range of civil penalties can apply for breaches of the modern awards or the NES.

• An employee is also entitled to take his or her own action against an employer for failing to pay the minimum wages, or failing to provide appropriate work conditions.

Discrimination and Harassment

• What is the difference between the two?• What are some examples of both?• Are there different laws that cover these?• What about sexual harassment?

Discrimination• Discrimination means treating someone less favourably than others

on the basis of irrelevant attributes.• Discrimination is prohibited in Australian workplaces under the

following federal and state acts of parliament:• Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic.)• Age Discrimination Act 2004 (Cth)• Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth)• Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth)• Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth).

• The Commonwealth Labor Government announced its intention to review four federal anti-discrimination laws with a view to merging them into a single act.

Harassment• Harassment is when someone is intimidated, insulted or

humiliated because of a particular attribute.• Harassment is prohibited under the following legislation:

• Age Discrimination Act 2004• Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986• Disability Discrimination Act 1992• Racial Discrimination Act 1975• Sex Discrimination Act 1984• Equal Opportunity Act 2010• Fair Work Act 2009.

Workplace safety

• Why do we have laws about workplace safety?• Is it just physical?• Is it important?

Workplace safety• Workplace laws operate to ensure the safety and protection of

employees.• This not only applies to physical dangers but also to mental and

physical dangers associated with unsafe practices such as discrimination and harassment

• Various workplace laws are in place to ensure employee safety. These include:• Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic.)• Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic.)• federal laws relating to discrimination such as the Racial Discrimination Act, Age Discrimination Act, Sex Discrimination Act and Disability Discrimination Act.

Safe work conditions• Occupational health and safety (OHS) is the term used to

promote safety in the workplace.• In Victoria, the Occupational Health and Safety Act operates to

improve occupational health and safety. The act sets out key principles, duties and rights in relation to OHS.

• The act imposes duties on employers and fellow employees to ensure an employee is healthy and safe at work, thereby creating a duty of care.

• If this duty of care is breached and someone suffers loss or damage as a result, then the person and/or company who breached the duty of care may be liable under the law of negligence

Workplace bullying

• We know about bullying through places like school and maybe even the jobs we already have. But unlike school, there may be more serious consequences about seeing bullying occur and not doing anything about it.

• What are some things you think could be considered workplace bullying?

• What are some of the consequences a person may suffer from being bullied?

Workplace bullying

• Workplace bullying is the repeated, less favourable, treatment of a person by another in the workplace. This includes behaviour that intimidates, offends, degrades or humiliates a worker. Any person can be the target of workplace bullying. It can range from verbal or physical assault to psychological abuse

The SAC

• A recap for those who were here on the last day, an explanation for those who weren’t

The SAC

• For this assessment you will be looking at a case of workplace bullying.

• You will need to find a case yourself and make sure it’s in Australia as you will need to be talking about legislation

The SAC

• Your SAC can be presented in many forms such as:– PowerPoint– Poster– Information booklet/pamphlet– Website/wikispace – Word document

• These are just suggestions, you don’t have to pick one of these. Just make sure the way you choose will present you work clearly and be easy to follow

The SAC

• You need to use a minimum of two of the following in your SAC:– Newspaper article– Interview– Court transcript– Extract of relevant act/s

The SAC

• You need to use a minimum of two of the following in your SAC:– Newspaper article– Interview– Court transcript– Extract of relevant act/s

Finding a case

• I suggest using a court website such as the magistrates court and doing a search for key words you are interested in doing

Example

What to do• There are 4 sections for the SAC. These are:• Identify the parties involved and their role and Identify key facts

of the case, including using key terminology [Who, what, when, why and how]

• Discussion on the outcome of the case, including your own opinions and the reasons behind them, before considering and talking about the room for potential changes in law

• You are then to suggest some ideas or ways that the issues in the case could have been resolved or avoided (linking in your last chapter on civil remedies, or who people could have sought help or advice from etc)

• Presentation, layout and bibliography

Part 1) Names of relevant people involved and facts of the case

• Students have clearly identified all parties involved in the case and their role. All the facts of the case (think of the who, what, when, how and why) are clearly presented and key terminology has been used

Part 2) Outcome of the court case, opinion of current laws and potential for changes in the law

• Students have outlined the outcome of the case and have understood and elaborated as to why it has occurred. Students have researched and engaged in a deep discussion about how current laws relate to this and given thoughtful and realistic ideas for potential change for the law, what those changes are and why they suggest them

Part 3) Ideas of ways the issue could have been prevented through different parties

• Students have looked at the progression of the bullying within the case and gone in depth to suggest many different, creative, realistic and applicable ideas of how the issues could have been prevented, avoided, resolved or lessened the damage incurred to the parties involved. Students would have also clearly justified the reasons as to why and how they believe their ideas would work

Part 4)Presentation, layout and bibliography

• Students have used correct spelling and grammar and have presented their case in a clear and easy to follow way through a choice of presentation that is suited to their ideas. There has been clear effort and research put into the presentation and each section has been answered with sufficient detail. A bibliography of all sources used and are listed alphabetically

• As we discussed in class: Surname, Initial of first name, Title of the webpage, newspaper article, act etc, then the link to it and the date you accessed it. Example: Scott, A, Legal Studies Wikispace, www.scottlegalstudies.wikispaces.com, Iast accessed 26th September 2011.

The SAC

• A copy of the SAC is up on the wikispace• You will be given time in class to work on this, but

as it is a SAC the class conditions will be different.• You can ask for questions and help at any time• You can do as well as you want to in this SAC, you

can get full marks if you put in the effort• It will be due at a point next week and as it is not

a sit in class SAC, it cannot be late. If you are away on that day you can send it electronically

Today’s class - Holiday Work

• For the rest of the session you need to be doing the work that was assigned for the holidays. I didn’t see many of you in the last week, so this is time to catch up before the SAC. You need to be reading pages 447 – 456 and making a summary point on each section as there are no questions.

• For these reasons there shouldn’t be too much noise today, there is a fair bit to get through

• I will need to see your summary points before you can start the SAC