The future?

Contributed by Clare Ozich and current to 1 September 2005

The area of employment and industrial relations is particularly political and often undergoes major change with different governments. At the time of writing, the Federal Coalition Government has announced a series of legislative changes that will alter many of the legal rights of employees and obligations of employers discussed above.

For example, as already noted, the government intends to remove businesses of less than 100 employees from the obligations imposed by unfair dismissal laws, including overriding State unfair dismissal laws. The government also intends to exempt small business from requirements to pay severance pay in circumstances of redundancy. Small business will be defined as less than 20 employees.

Legislation to remove all unfair dismissal cases where the employer is a constitutional corporation from the State jurisdiction to the federal jurisdiction is also planned.

It is likely that Federal awards will be further restricted in their content and there will be further restrictions on the role of unions and the ability of employees to take industrial action. Federal collective agreements and AWAs will now be measured against five statutory conditions rather than a relevant award.