Fair Work Amendment Act Assessment Answer

The main legislative act relating to employee relations and industrial relations in Australia is the Fair Work Act 2009. This has been supplemented and built on with the Fair Work Amendment Act 2017.

Question 1  

Describe four key elements of the Fair Work Act?

Answer:
The four key elements of the Fair Work Act according to the Australia Fair Work Act 2009 and further supplemented and built on the Fair Work Amendment Act 2017 are as follows
Terms and condition of the employment- fair and safe condition of the work and employment 
Set out the rights and responsibilities of the employees, employers, and organizations in relation to that employment
Act provides Compliance with and enforcement of the Act 
Provides for the administration of the Act by establishing the fair work commission and fair commission and the Fair Work Ombudsman.
According to this act, the employees and employer are able to clearly know their rights and obligation towards the organization. The main purpose of this fair work act is to protect the employee from the exploitation.  According to this act, the employer has a great responsibility to provide the safe working condition which is free from hazardous (Layton et al., 2014). But the employer is not responsible for any unethical behavior demonstrated by the employee during his employment. This act also solved the issues of collective bargaining and terms and condition of effective bargaining.

Question 2

Discuss how each of the above benefits either the employer or employee.

Answer:
Fair Work Act truly benefit both of the party that is the employer as well as the employee in many sense.
Act highlight the terms and condition of the employment which enables the employee to knows his working condition and hours of time and work. It enables the working condition to be safe and free from hazardous. So through this employee motivational level will be increased and their productivity increases.  The act also provides protection to the employee in regards to safe employment and termination (Andrews et al., 2016). It improved the relationship between the employer and employee which helps in increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the work and as a result overall productivity increases. Act also establishes the Fair Work Commission and Fair Work Ombudsman. Which provide avenues where employees and employers can report breaches at the workplace for further investigation and initiation of lawsuits. So totally it has many benefits as it leads to having fair working environment and condition. Through terms and conditions, employees can ask the employer to provide a flexible working condition. The act provides and enables to know the obligation of employer and employee towards each other.

References

Layton, R., Smith, M., & Stewart, A. (2014). Equal remuneration under the Fair Work Act 2009.
Andrews, S., Bare, L., Bentley, P., Goedegebuure, L., Pugsley, C., & Rance, B. (2016). Contingent academic employment in Australian universities. Melbourne: LH Martin Institute & Australian Higher Education Industrial Association. Retrieved, 6.