IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecolab/v16y2006i2p85-126.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Colin Fenwick

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Colin Fenwick, 2006. "How Low Can You Go? Minimum Working Conditions under Australia's New Labour Laws," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 16(2), pages 85-126, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:16:y:2006:i:2:p:85-126
    DOI: 10.1177/103530460601600205
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/103530460601600205
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/103530460601600205?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. E. King, 1999. "Introduction," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 251-255.
    2. Anna Chapman, 2006. "Unfair Dismissal Law and Work Choices: From Safety Net Standard to Legal Privilege," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 16(2), pages 237-264, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. John Buchanan & Damian Oliver, 2016. "‘Fair Work’ and the Modernization of Australian Labour Standards: A Case of Institutional Plasticity Entrenching Deepening Wage Inequality," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 790-814, December.
    2. O'Brien, Martin & Valadkhani, Abbas & Waring, Peter & Denniss, Richard, 2007. "BNew Developments in the Australian Labour Market in 2006," Economics Working Papers wp07-16, School of Economics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
    3. Peter Sheldon & Nancy Kohn, 2007. "AWAs and Individual Bargaining in the Era of WorkChoices: A Critical Evaluation Using Negotiation Theory," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 18(1), pages 115-142, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. H. Pollitt & J. -F. Mercure, 2015. "The role of money and the financial sector in energy-economy models used for assessing climate policy," Papers 1512.02912, arXiv.org.
    2. Vladimir Mihajlović & Gordana Marjanović, 2019. "Post-Kejnzijanska Kritika Novog Konsenzusa U Makroekonomiji I Pouke Za Tranzicione Privrede (Post-Keynesian Criticism Of The New Consensus Macroeconomics And Lessons For Transitional Economies)," Ekonomske ideje i praksa, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, issue 34, pages 21-32, September.
    3. J E King, 2006. "Imperfectionism in Macroeconomics: New Light on an Old Controversy," Economic Issues Journal Articles, Economic Issues, vol. 11(2), pages 39-50, September.
    4. Mark S. Hillier & Margaret L. Brandeau, 1998. "Optimal Component Assignment and Board Grouping in Printed Circuit Board Manufacturing," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 46(5), pages 675-689, October.
    5. Oslington, Paul, 2022. "The Economics Of Bernard Lonergan: Context, Modeling, And Assessment," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(2), pages 182-204, June.
    6. Martin Wynn & Olakunle Olayinka, 2021. "E-Business Strategy in Developing Countries: A Framework and Checklist for the Small Business Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-23, June.
    7. Bendreff Desilus, 2020. "Fiscal Policy in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_960, Levy Economics Institute.
    8. Benoit P. Freyens, 2011. "Dismissal Disputes and the Incentives to Bargain: Estimates of the Contract Zone," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 64(3), pages 576-598, April.
    9. James S. Eales & Laurian J. Unnevehr, 1993. "Simultaneity and Structural Change in U.S. Meat Demand," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 75(2), pages 259-268.
    10. Heider Felix, 2020. "Die postkeynesianische Ökonomik in der Finanzethik des katholischen Sozialethikers Bernhard Emunds – Diskussion aus einer angebotsorientierten Perspektive," Journal for Markets and Ethics, Sciendo, vol. 8(2), pages 1-24, December.
    11. Farida Shaikh & Muhammad Ilyas Bhutto, 2011. "Existing Teaching (Grade XI & XII) as Perceived by Learners at Public Sector Higher Secondary Schools and Colleges," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 1(3 Special), pages 60-68, August.
    12. Ewald Walterskirchen, 2016. "Neukeynesianismus und Postkeynesianismus: Was für ein Unterschied!," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 42(3), pages 405-430.
    13. Jose Joaquin del Pozo-Antúnez & Francisco Fernández-Navarro & Horacio Molina-Sánchez & Antonio Ariza-Montes & Mariano Carbonero-Ruz, 2021. "The Machine-Part Cell Formation Problem with Non-Binary Values: A MILP Model and a Case of Study in the Accounting Profession," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(15), pages 1-16, July.
    14. Bruno Damásio & Diogo Martins, 2017. "Do Labour Market Reforms Pay Off? Unemployment and Capital Accumulation in Portugal," Working Papers Department of Economics 2017/01, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.
    15. Ricardo Soto & Broderick Crawford & Rodrigo Olivares & César Carrasco & Eduardo Rodriguez-Tello & Carlos Castro & Fernando Paredes & Hanns de la Fuente-Mella, 2020. "A Reactive Population Approach on the Dolphin Echolocation Algorithm for Solving Cell Manufacturing Systems," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-25, August.
    16. Hector Pollitt & Karsten Neuhoff & Xinru Lin, 2020. "The impact of implementing a consumption charge on carbon-intensive materials in Europe," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(S1), pages 74-89, April.
    17. Anantaram Balakrishnan & François Vanderbeck, 1999. "A Tactical Planning Model for Mixed-Model Electronics Assembly Operations," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 47(3), pages 395-409, June.
    18. Floor Brouwer & Lydia Vamvakeridou-Lyroudia & Eva Alexandri & Ingrida Bremere & Matthew Griffey & Vincent Linderhof, 2018. "The Nexus Concept Integrating Energy and Resource Efficiency for Policy Assessments: A Comparative Approach from Three Cases," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-18, December.
    19. James Holehouse & Hector Pollitt, 2021. "Non-equilibrium time-dependent solution to discrete choice with social interactions," Papers 2109.09633, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    20. Mailu, Stephen & Wanyoike, M & Serem, Jared, 2013. "Rabbit breed characteristics, farmer objectives and preferences in Kenya: A correspondence analysis," MPRA Paper 48476, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:16:y:2006:i:2:p:85-126. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.