Mr R Mitchell and Mr R Naughton. None First semester Two 1-hour lectures and a 1-hour tutorial a week. At the end of this course students should:

• understand the legal background and structure of federal and State industrial relations systems;
• have developed an understanding of the significance and content of the contract of employment and its relationship to industrial awards and collective agreements;
• be familiar with statutory developments in the employment law area (equal opportunity, occupational health and safety) which have an impact upon the contract of employment;
• understand the operation of the federal system of conciliation and arbitration, the nature and significance of awards, the legal regulation of collective agreements, and the enforcement mechanisms available to the federal Industrial Relations Commission;
• understand the legal basis of trade unionism, and the legal regulation of trade unions at common law and under the statutory industrial relations systems;
• have an appreciation of the role of law (both common law and statute) in regulating industrial conflict;
• have acquired skills in analysing factual situations with labour law consequences and applying legal rules and principles to them.

A study of the law in an industrial relations and human resource management context: the contract of employment including duties of employers and employees; the constitutional basis of the federal system of industrial relations; concilaition and arbitration, awards, collective bargaining and agreements, including enterprise flexibility agreements, individual protections against unfair dismissal, the regulations of industrial action, the regulation of trade unions. A 3-hour end-of-semester examination. A reading list will be provided at the beginning of the semester