Page 2399 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 2 August 2017
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… there was for a long time no clear delineation of legislative responsibility over employment matters between the Commonwealth, States and the Territories.
After coming to government in 1996 the Howard government introduced the Workplace Relations Act 1996, which, for the first time, saw commonwealth industrial legislation covering 75 per cent of employers, to the exclusion of most state and territory laws, including all employers in the territories and all commonwealth agencies. Some responsibilities remained with this territory, including the regulation of light work by children and young people, health and safety, and discrimination.
Under the workplace learning program in ACT schools, all workplace learning students, regardless of where they are placed, must be given the necessary information and support to understand workplace legislation. But of course there is necessarily a focus on federal industrial relations law as well. For example, it is important in the course of work experience that the person who is doing the work experience should get the main benefit from the arrangement. If a business or organisation is getting the main benefit from engaging the person and their work, it is more likely the person is an employee under commonwealth law. These are important matters that need to be pointed out.
It is clearly not the role of a territory agency like WorkSafe ACT, whose primary responsibility is to enforce the territory’s health and safety and workers compensation laws, to then provide advice based on federal workplace relations law, although matters of health and safety may be relevant. And it is not their role in compliance to educate school students. Their focus should be on the capacity of employers to comply with ACT legislation through education, guidance and other assistance.
The role of educating, building skills and knowledge amongst working people about workplace legislation and workplace rights should be through community organisations that have this as a primary purpose. That is the role of organisations like UnionsACT, which has relevant expertise and knowledge on both ACT and federal legislation and which plays a role in our community in promoting workplace rights through a range of enterprises, including the retail and hospitality sectors in which many young people work.
The rationale for these types of programs, like the one delivered by UnionsACT, is well supported. In 2013 Paula McDonald, Robin Price and Janis Bailey conducted research on what young people know about their rights and obligations in employment. They found that young people know relatively little of their employment rights. Their conclusions underscore the need for education strategies that inform young people prior to and in the very early stages of their working lives.
That information about employment relations needs to be widely available through multiple channels so that young people can proactively seek information and, if necessary, take steps to enact their rights as valued participants in the formal labour market. The researchers also suggest that knowledge of employment practice entitlements could be integrated to a greater extent into high school curricula.
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