Write a 8 page essay on Employment/Industrial relations. Compare Australia's WorkChoices legislation and Fair Work Act.Download file to see previous pages... Presently there has been a gradual decreas

Write a 8 page essay on Employment/Industrial relations. Compare Australia's WorkChoices legislation and Fair Work Act.

Presently there has been a gradual decrease in the scope of the commission jurisdiction to interfere in the award related matters. In the present time there has been encouragement of the individualised agreement in between the employers and the employees at enterprise level (Gardner and Palmer, 1997). The study will be reflecting the transitional phase of the changing labour market when there has been a shift of the regulatory system from Work Choices Legislation to Fair Work Act. The study will be depicting the changes in the work environment in Australia gradually along with the changes in the employment relations (Cole, 2007. Stewart, 2009. Balnave, Brown, Maconachie and Stone, 2009). Work Choices Legislation The Work Choices legislation of Howard Government has come into existence in the year 2006 (Federation Press, 2006. Sappey et al., 2006b). The legislation has made various substantial changes related to the rules and regulations of the employment conditions as well as industrial relations. It is actually the Workplace Relations act 1996, later amended as Workplace relations Amendment Act 2005 which involved various controversial amendments related to the Workplace relations Act 1996 (Australian Government, 2005). The Work Choices Legislation was passed by the Howard Government in the year 2005. It was specially designed for improving the employment levels as well as the national economic performance by providing unfair dismissal laws to the companies which are under certain size. The laws were made in order to ensure that none of the workers are being disadvantageous due to the amendments made in the legislation consequently promoting the efficiency of the workers (AFPC, 2006). The legislation required submission of the certified agreements by workers directly in the Workplace Authority instead of passing through Australian Industrial Relations Commission. It has also compromised the ability of the workforce to legally undergo strikes where they would be asked to bargain for the previous guaranteed conditions but without any collective representation and also restraining the trade union activities and the recruitments on work sites (Baird, Ellem and Page, 2006). The Work Choices was one of the most concerning issues in the year 2007 during the federal election as the Australian Labour Party (ALP’s) was demanding the abolition of the legislation. Kevin Rudd, leading the party, won the election which resulted in the beginning of the biggest issue related to the abolition of the legislation. The reforms in the legislation mainly included the following steps: It offered to the employers’ higher flexibility in their business or employment terms and conditions where they were allowed to employ the workers with different workplace agreements which are underpinned under the statutory minimum conditions instead of rewards. It reduced the role of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (i.e. AIRC) in the determination of various employment conditions and solution of the industrial disputes. One of the main objectives of the reforms in this legislation was to restrict the entry of Union in the workplaces. It made attempts to reduce the exposure of the employers to the unfair dismissal claims. This act has implemented the objective set by the government which focussed on moving towards one single national structure of rules and regulation.