Anna Chapman

Unfair Dismissal Law and Work Choices: From Safety Net Standard to Legal Privilege:

This article examines the amendments made to the Australian system of unfair dismissal law by the federal Work Choices Act. The main theme underlying those changes is one of contraction. Notably, a much larger proportion of the Australian labour force will now not have recourse to challenge their dismissal on the basis that it was “harsh, unjust or unreasonable”. This is the effect of the Work Choices exemption of corporate employers with up to 100 employees, the operational reasons exemption, the exemption of seasonal workers and the extension of the qualifying period from three to six months. It is also the effect of moving towards a national system of unfair dismissal.

Industrial Legislation in 1999

Arange of amendments were made to Australian workplace legislation in 1999. New industrial legislation was introduced in Queensland, the effect of which will be to shift the direction of regulation in that state. Equal opportunity legislation was amended in important respects in both Tasmania and at the federal level. Federal affirmative action legislation was altered, and legislation reshaping the procedures for hearing complaints under federal discrimination statutes was enacted. Occupational health and safety legislation was also amended in a number of jurisdictions.

Industrial Legislation in 1998

The year 1998 was relatively quiet for amendments to legislation regulating workplace relations in Australia. Several jurisdictions were characterised by numerous minor amendments to their principal industrial relations statute. These alterations were in the nature of fine-tuning, rather than a redirection of legislative schemes. In this sense 1998 was similar to 1997. As also occurred in 1997, but for different reasons, the amendments that came into effect in Queensland and Western Australia were arguably of a different nature. In Queensland the newly elected Labor government brought about the enactment of legislation to halt reform in that state. In Western Australia, some of the more controversial aspects of that state’s second wave of

Comparativism, the Labour-Social Policy Nexus and Intra-National Analysis: A Case Study

Analyses of the labour-social policy nexus are predominantly cross-national and regional in approach. Comparisons of individual policy domains within nations are less common. This paper is an intra-national comparative analysis of jobseekers and workers with family responsibilities in Australia, focusing on the relationship between labour law and social security law in each domain. The comparison demonstrates that cross-national comparativism can benefit from insights provided by intra-national approaches. Most notably, intra-nationalism sheds different light on the relative integrative potential of labour and social policies. It also elevates the role of the law and of moral values in the process of marketisation.