COLLECTIVE LABOUR LAW
McCormick Foods workers want a pay increase – their dispute shows Australia’s enterprise bargaining system is broken
McCormick Foods workers want a pay increase – their dispute shows Australia’s enterprise bargaining system is broken Picture: Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese, addressing workers at the McCormick Foods picket line,
Collectivising the gig economy: In the pandemic, it’s a matter of life and death
Collectivising the gig economy: In the pandemic, it’s a matter of life and death Anthony Forsyth, RMIT University and Labour Law Down Under Blog. This post was recently published in
The Identity of the ‘Employer’ in Australian Labour Law: Moving Beyond the Unitary Conception of the Employer
The Identity of the ‘Employer’ in Australian Labour Law: Moving Beyond the Unitary Conception of the Employer Anthony Forsyth, RMIT University and Labour Law Down Under Blog This article was
Unions in the Fair Work Act Decade – and the Aftermath of ‘Change the Rules’
Unions in the Fair Work Act Decade – and the Aftermath of ‘Change the Rules’ This post includes some edited extracts from my recent article: ‘Ten Years of the Fair
Jelle Visser’s ‘revitalisation’ option is a viable way forward for unions – here’s how
Jelle Visser’s ‘revitalisation’ option is a viable way forward for unions – here’s how This week, I spoke at a Victorian Fabians event on ‘Organised Labour and the Future of
How did the United States brand of union-busting become a thing?
How did the United States brand of union-busting become a thing? This is an edited version of a book review I wrote earlier this year for the journal ‘Labour and
Victoria’s On-Demand Inquiry Report calls out the gig economy’s ‘entrepreneur’ myth and recommends much-needed reform
Victoria’s On-Demand Inquiry Report calls out the gig economy’s ‘entrepreneur’ myth and recommends much-needed reform An edited version of this post was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 16
The ‘gig’ is up: lifting the lid on the World Economic Forum’s “Charter of Principles for Good Platform Work”
The ‘gig’ is up: lifting the lid on the World Economic Forum’s “Charter of Principles for Good Platform Work” Last month, the World Economic Forum published its Charter of Principles
The Ensuring Integrity Bill and the chimera of ‘regulating unions just like companies’
The Ensuring Integrity Bill and the chimera of ‘regulating unions just like companies’ This post is based on my presentation to the NTEU Symposium on the Ensuring Integrity Bill held
The Ensuring Integrity Bill is about one thing: curtailing union power
The Ensuring Integrity Bill is about one thing: curtailing union power Last week I co-authored the Australian Institute of Employment Rights submission to the Senate Committee on the federal Government’s
An Australian perspective on the Uber/Lyft representation debate in California
An Australian perspective on the Uber/Lyft representation debate in California This is an edited text of my presentation at the ACTU/Melbourne Law School Symposium on the Centenary of the ILO,
Australia’s Fair Work Ombudsman finds Uber drivers are contractors: so what can unions do now?
An edited version of this post, including discussion of the “contractor model” of gig platforms, was published in The Sydney Morning Herald on 14 June 2019: ‘Employee or not? What the
2019 Federal Election Primer, Part 2: Enterprise Bargaining
This is the second in a series of posts discussing the major aspects of workplace relations policy in the lead-up to Australia’s federal election on 18 May 2019. Labor’s proposals
NUW agreement at Chemist Warehouse challenges misuse of labour hire business model
The National Union of Workers (NUW) has concluded a new enterprise agreement for distribution centres at Chemist Warehouse, following more than two weeks of strike action (see yesterday’s post). The
Chemist Warehouse dispute drags on, with a legal win for the NUW
The industrial dispute at Chemist Warehouse’s distribution centres in Victoria and Queensland has entered its third week. National Union of Workers (NUW) members are taking protected industrial action under the
Labor will get rid of the federal Building Code
Last weekend it was reported in The Australian that the federal Opposition will replace the Code for the Tendering and Performance of Building Work 2016, with a new set of procurement guidelines for
Cochlear and ResMed disputes highlight limitations of the Fair Work Act collective bargaining system
In a recent post, I started to examine the last ten years of enterprise bargaining in Australia through the lens of the recently published book Collective Bargaining under the Fair Work
How do things look after almost a decade of collective bargaining under the Fair Work Act?
(Picture: former Prime Minister and architect of the Fair Work Act, Julia Gillard, shows President Obama how to handball an Aussie rules football in The Oval.) Last night I spoke
What does collective representation look like in Australia’s gig economy?
I’ve posted below a presentation I gave to the SERI Outreach Conference in May 2017. It takes a preliminary look at some aspects of the evolving approach to regulation of
