Industrial legislation in Australia, 2020

Abstract

In 2020, the Federal Morrison Liberal Government scrambled to respond to the effects of the international coronavirus pandemic on the Australian labour market in two key ways. First, through largescale social welfare and economic stimulus (the ‘JobKeeper’ scheme) and second, through significant proposed reform to employment laws as part of a pandemic recovery package (the ‘Omnibus Bill’). Where the first measure was administered by employers, the second was largely designed to suspend and/or redefine labour protections in the interests of employers. In this respect, the message from the Federal Government was clear: that the costs of pandemic recovery should be borne by workers at the discretion of employers. State Labor Governments, by contrast, enacted a range of industrial protections. These included the first Australia ‘wage theft’ or underpayment frameworks on behalf of both employees and contractors in the construction industry. On-trend with state industrial legislation over the past 4 years, these state governments continued to introduce industrial manslaughter offences, increased access to workers’ compensation, labour hire licensing schemes and portable long service leave.

Omnibus Law as Investment Law Reform in Indonesia Based on the Hierarchy of Legislation Principles

“…This distinction is intended to emphasize that in the conception of a rule of law, justice will not necessarily materialize substantively, especially because people's understanding of the law itself can be influenced by formal legal notions and can also be influenced by material legal thoughts. (Schofield-Georgeson, 2021) The State of Indonesia has the status mandated by the 1945 Constitution. This status becomes the identity of the state, namely a state of law.…”

Industrial legislation in Australia in 2021

“…As discussed in the 2020 Annual Review and elsewhere (Schofield-Georgeson, 2021; Stewart et al, 2021), when originally introduced to Parliament, the Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia's Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2020 consisted of seven schedules, proposing a broad range of amendments to Parts of the FW Act covering modern awards, enterprise agreement-making and strengthening the enforcement regime. These issues had been flagged by the Coalition Government as of concern in 2019 and workshopped with representatives of business and workers in 2020.…”

“…On 1 July 2021, the Wage Theft Act 2020 (Vic) came into effect, making it a crime for employers in Victoria to deliberately and dishonestly underpay employees or withhold employee entitlements. Further details about the Wage Theft Act are considered by Schofield-Georgeson (2021), and its coming into effect in July 2021 is mentioned here for completeness.…”