How Low Can You Go? Minimum Working Conditions under Australia's New Labour Laws

Colin Fenwick

The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 2006, vol. 16, issue 2, 85-126

Abstract: The Work Choices package of legislative reforms has significantly altered both the institutions and the instruments of the federal regulatory architecture for setting minimum working conditions. This paper surveys the reduced role of awards and of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, before considering the function and content of the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard and Australian Pay and Classification Scales, as well as the role of the newly created Australian Fair Pay Commission. It argues that the Work Choices reforms have shifted power over the setting of minimum working conditions to the government, which will set many conditions directly, and to employers, who will be entitled to require employees to be party to workplace agreements that displace very many of the minimum working conditions that are otherwise purportedly guaranteed. These shifts have opened up the space for significant reductions in minimum working conditions, as well as for falls in real wages for those not able to benefit from wage bargaining.

Date: 2006
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:16:y:2006:i:2:p:85-126

DOI: 10.1177/103530460601600205

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