Since early 2006, the federal labour inspectorate, now known as the Fair Work Ombudsman ('FWO'), has been both active and innovative in promoting and enforcing employment standards. While various enforcement tools are available to the FWO, civil remedy litigation has been an especially visible...

The importance of accountability has long been sheeted home to the Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), the federal statutory agency responsible for enforcement of minimum employment standards under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). In the immediate aftermath of Work Choices, the activities of...

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (‘ACCC’) is on the cusp of introducing a class exemption for collective bargaining for small businesses. This development is not just novel in the context of Australian competition law, it is important in terms of addressing entrenched...

This chapter begins by exploring the available evidence on the extent to which Australian workplaces have become fissured. This chapter then provides an overview of the central statutory responses in the respective regulatory spheres of labor, work health and safety, and competition and consumer...

When the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) was first introduced, compliance issues were viewed as somewhat trifling and the enforcement framework generated very little discussion, let alone debate. Early reviews of the Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) generally reached positive conclusions about...

Most collective bargaining regimes operate by establishing a right to bargain collectively at enterprise or industry level. In theory, the law operates to facilitate collective bargaining by providing that employers must not refuse to bargain collectively with employee representatives where a...