‘It's a Discrimination Law Julia, but Not as We Know It’: Part 3-1 of the Fair Work Act

Simon Rice and Cameron Roles

The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 2010, vol. 21, issue 1, 13-36

Abstract: At first glance, Part 3–1 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) seems to overlap with long-established anti-discrimination laws, offering protection against adverse, attribute-based conduct in employment. On close analysis, however, it turns out to be a new and quite different regime. Although the Fair Work Act offers a simple alternative to dated and complicated anti-discrimination laws, its provisions are at times overly-simple, raising uncertainty about how they will operate. Our analysis leads us to conclude that the approach to discrimination protection in the Fair Work Act , while an important addition to the remedies available to Australian workers, is compromised by failing to take account of lessons learned in the long history of anti-discrimination law.

Keywords: Adverse action; anti-discrimination law; direct discrimination; indirect discrimination; dismissal protections; employment discrimination; employment law; Fair Work Act Australia; labour law; labour rights; victimisation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:21:y:2010:i:1:p:13-36

DOI: 10.1177/103530461002100102

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