The role of the Fair Work Commission in tackling workplace bullying

From 1 January 2014, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) has jurisdiction to hear complaints from workers covered by the Fair Work Act 2009 (FWA) who allege they are victims of workplace bullying.

Is an employee who resigns entitled to leave-loading on their unpaid annual leave?

Since the Fair Work Act 2009 (FWA) was introduced, there have been differing views regarding how to calculate the amount payable to an employee who has untaken annual leave when they cease employment. Is it calculated using the employee’s base rate of pay, or must it (if the employee is entitled to it) include leave-loading?

Stephen Edward Ryan v Whitehaven Coal Mining Pty Ltd (Ryan v Whitehaven)* may be the first case to have considered the issue. The court ruled that where an employee is entitled to leave-loading, the amount payable for any untaken annual leave must include leave‑loading.

Industrial relations reforms: boosting labour productivity?

Business leaders are citing impediments caused by the Fair Work legislation as a significant limit on labour productivity:

Mr Argus (former BHP Billiton chairman) ... warn(ed) of a return to "the dark days of the 1970s" if labour market flexibility was not boosted. He said under the Fair Work laws, unions were resisting "management attempts to achieve efficiency"... Bureau of Statistics data shows little change in labour productivity growth under the Fair Work Act when compared to the period under Work Choices, while other measures of productivity have also weakened since 2000.( ‘Labor woeful on economic reform, says Argus’)

The aim of such criticism, at a minimum, would be to widen ‘prohibited content’ in the matters addressed in enterprise bargaining, yet Australia has witnessed two decades of national industrial relations reform to make enterprise bargaining the centrepiece of our industrial relations system. It is thus reasonable to ask what were the IR reforms and have these influenced labour productivity?