MMH349 Employment Relations

Assessment task – 2nd

Word length: 3,000 words (plus or minus 10 per cent, excluding the reference list)

Enterprise agreements are greatly encouraged under the Fair Work Act 2009, such that the processes of bargaining leading to their conclusion figure prominently in its regulatory content. The reasoning behind the favoured position accorded to enterprise agreements, and more particularly the processes leading to their settlement, is nowhere better stated than in the following description given by the Fair Work Ombudsman:

Enterprise bargaining is way a way of fostering a culture of change in the workplace and is a valuable tool in the process of continuous improvement. It can assist in the creation of responsive and flexible enterprises and help to improve productivity and efficiency. Increased productivity can provide higher wages to workers or more secure and satisfying work, higher profits to employers and lower priced goods and services to the public. (Fair Work Ombudsman, 2016, Best Practice Guide Improving Workplace Productivity in Bargaining).

The purpose of this assignment is to put you in touch with various agencies, legal requirements and scholarly studies pertinent to this important area of employment relations. It will encourage you to examine those areas of the Fair Work Act 2009 pertinent to enterprise bargaining, access government agencies responsible for regulating the processes of enterprise bargaining, and review one of the key debates associated with such processes. To these end you are required answer the following questions:

(1) What are the main arguments favouring and criticising the processes of enterprise bargaining under the present Fair Work Act 2009?

(2) Is it valid to assume a link exists between enterprise bargaining and productivity growth?

In addressing these questions you should draw on authoritative sources to support the arguments being made. What counts as ‘authoritative’ are peer-reviewed journal articles, scholarly text and research books, mainstream media, employer associations, trade unions, and public institutions with an interest in employment relations. You should not offer personal opinions or rely on personal experience. Nor should you refer to internet blogs, vanity sites and the like, recognisable by their having no legitimacy in representation and no authority accountable to public, political or academic review.

Please also note the following:

- Adhere to the word limit as set out above. Any assignment content over the limit will not be examined.

- There is no requirement or recommendation as to the number of sources that should be cited.

- This is not a group assignment.

- Double space your work, as it makes the text easier to read for the examiner.

- Papers that use no citation will attract an automatic zero. Resubmission is not an option.

- Papers that have no reference list will attract an automatic zero. Resubmission is not an option.