Alternative Law Journal

Media Release

5 May 1998

The Year of Living Dangerously

The Workplace Relations Act, one year on

The Federal Government's workplace relations legislation is facing its biggest test so far in the battle between Patrick Stevedores, the Maritime Union of Australia and the Federal Government.

As the drama unfolds in the courts and on the docks, the impact of the Workplace Relations Act is reverberating at all levels of Australian society. What the outcome of the dispute will be is not yet known. What we do know is that the landscape of Australian industrial relations has drastically changed - some would say irrevocably.

It is timely that the April edition of the Alternative Law Journal has as its theme a critical analysis of the Workplace Relations Act 1996.

Linda Rubinstein assesses the impact of the recent industrial law changes on the trade union movement. 'Overall', she says, 'employers have made it clear that they are not interested in disrupting productive, co-operative relationships with unions in order to advance the Government's ideological campaign'. The union movement has shown itself to be able to 'adapt and survive'.

Claire Howell considers the procedural complexities in the unfair dismissal legislation, which is operating to reduce the availability of these provisions to many employees.

Carol Andrades, provides an overview of the effect of the Act on vulnerable workers, pointing out 'the danger is that the damage done through their isolation and erosion of their conditions will be irreparable'. James Judge criticises the role of the Employment Advocate and the Australian Industrial Relations Commission in implementing the "no disadvantage" test for Australian Workplace Agreements.