Major Events
In addition to the Sponsors' Seminar Series and the Labour Law Seminar Series, from time to time the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law hosts conferences, roundtables and other events for members of the Australian and international labour law community. These events bring together scholars, practitioners of labour law, industrial relations and human resource management, and members of the public to focus on current issues in Australian, international and comparative labour law.
Labour Law Teaching Workshop**
This workshop provides a forum for teachers of labour law subjects, broadly construed to include employment law and industrial law (taught to both law and non-law students) to come together in a collegial environment and discuss the challenging questions we face in our teaching, such as:
• Which text best suits my students learning needs and styles?
• How should I structure the syllabus?
• What innovative forms of assessment have other teachers used?
• How can I best engage my students in current debates and issues?
Date: Thursday 13 November 2008, 2pm-5.30pm
Venue: Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne (University Square, 185 Pelham Street, Carlton 3053)
This workshop is sponsored by the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne and the Australian Labour Law Association.
For further information on the workshop, please contact Anna Gray ( a.gray@unimelb.edu.au).
To register please click here There is no registration fee for this workshop.
Click on this link for a copy of the program: Labour Law Teaching Workshop
Public Address by Julia Gillard MP
Monday September 24
As a part of the Centre's Seminar Series, the Deputy Labor Leader, Ms Julia Gillard, MP, addressed a free public lecture on the topic 'A Fair and Balanced Industrial Relations Policy for Australia', outlining the industrial relations policy that the ALP is taking to the forthcoming election.
To listen to Julia Gillard's address please click here.
Labour Law Policy Dialogue III
12 September
Workchoices: Reform or Retrogression in Labour Relations? A View from the Other Side of the World
Professor Richard Freeman, Harvard University
Australia’s new labour relations law institutes the most radical change in labour institutions in any advanced democracy since legalization of unions. It comes at a time when unions in Australia and the other English-speaking countries are struggling to reinvent themselves and develop new policies for today’s workers and global labour market. Professor Freeman will examine its potential impact on employee voice, work well-being and economic efficiency, and compare it to recent and proposed changes in US and UK labour laws.
Partnerships at Work Round Table Discussions and Seminar
Thursday May 31 and Monday June 4
Partnerships at Work is a research project, funded by the ARC, examining the interaction between several key factors in the creation and sustainability of 'partnerships at work'.
As a component of this research, the Centre of Employment and Labour Relations Law, in conjunction with the Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation will host a Round Table Discussion and a Seminar.
The Round Table Discussion will consider the topic 'Should Institutional Investors Use their Considerable Market Power to Influence the Human Resources Practices of Companies?' The discussions will be introduced by Michael O'Sullivan, President of the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors. Professor Ian Ramsay and Shelley Marshall will present 13 detailed case studies, with opinions and reactions invited from participants. For more information please click here.
Speaking on the topic 'Employee Participation in a Unionised Environment: What do Workers Want?', Christina Cregan, Associate Professor in Industrial Relations at the University of Melbourne, will address the Seminar. She will present findings of a study which investigated the willingness of workers in a unionised environment to be involved in employee participation in the form of a company's joint consultation committee. For further information regarding the seminar, please click here.
Labour Law Policy Dialogue
On 2nd June 2006, the Centre brought together a group of invited participants from politics, the academy and business to examine policy options and alternatives to the current 'Work Choices' model of labour law in Australia. The policy dialogue roundtable examined four issues: the constitutional basis for a national system of workplace, the setting of minimum standards, agreement-making, and the role of associations.
The meeting was very successful and a further roundtable is proposed to deal with a range of other issues. Please click on the link below to view the report. Labour Law Policy Dialogue (1) June 2006
Corporate Governance Workshop 7/8 December 2006
For further information please click here
The High Court's Work Choices Decision: Analysis and Implications for Employment Law and Constitutional Law
For further details please click on the flyer: High Court Seminar Flyer
During 2005 (8-9 July), a two day conference was held at the Melbourne Law School on the theme Labour Law, Equity and Efficiency: Structuring and Regulating the Labour Market for the 21st Century. The conference was jointly organised by the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law in conjunction with the Australian Labour Law Association, the Bowater School of Management at Deakin University, the Law School, Griffith University, and the Law School, Victoria University. The event was extremely successful, with 115 attendees. Notable contributions and outcomes of the conference included:
- The Opening Address by Professor Glyn Davis, Vice Chancellor, the University of Melbourne.
- Thirty four papers were presented during two plenary sessions and four series of concurrent sessions.
- A book drawn from the Conference proceedings will be published by Federation Press in 2006.
- Centre members actively participated in the Conference, with Richard Mitchell, Anna Chapman, John Howe, Shelley Marshall, Joo-Cheong Tham, Sean Cooney and Anthony O’Donnell presenting papers, and Colin Fenwick and Glenn Patmore chairing sessions.
- Centre administrator Elena Goodey organised the preparation and running of the Conference. Kathryn Taylor, Hannah Fitzgerald, Lucie O’Brien, Marc Trabsky and Julia Mitchell were also of great assistance during the conference.
Panels and Round Tables
During 2005 the Centre organised several ad hoc panel discussions and round tables, as joint events with other Centres within the University of Melbourne and/or with external institutions:
- Panel Discussion: Labour Rights in Asia: The ILO’s Decent Work Agenda. The panel was jointly organised by the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law; Asialink; the Asian Economics Centre; the Asian Law Centre; and the Australian Centre for International Business. The event was held at the Melbourne Law School on 7 April and over 80 people attended. Panel participants included: Mr Kari Tapiola, Executive Director, Standards and Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Sector, ILO Geneva; Advisory Board member Mr Alan Boulton, Country Director, ILO Indonesia and Timor Leste; Ms Myra Hanartani, Head of the Legal Bureau, Department of Manpower and Transmigration, Republic of Indonesia; and Mr Manuel G. Imson, Under Secretary for Labor Relations, Department of Labor and Employment, The Philippines. Ms Sharan Burrow, President of the ACTU, and Professor Breen Creighton acted as commentators. With the support of Professor Michael Crommelin, Dean of the Law School, the panelists and commentators were later hosted as guests at dinner. They were accompanied by other invited guests including Justice Robyn Layton (Supreme Court of South Australia, and chair of the ILO’s Committee of Experts), and Justice Geoffrey Giudice (President, Australian Industrial Relations Commission).
- Panel Discussion: Human Rights in Burma: What More Can the International Community Do? This event was held in conjunction with Asialink; the Asian Law Centre; the Institute for the Study of Global Movement; Monash University; and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The event was held on 23 June at the Sidney Myer Asia Centre, and over 60 people attended. Panel participants included: Mr Clyde Roxon, Human Rights Advocate; Justice Robyn Layton, Supreme Court of South Australia and Chair of the ILO’s Committee of Experts; and Professor Sarah Joseph, Director, Castan Centre for Human Rights, Monash University.
- Reflecting on International Labour Rights: Roundtable Seminar. Professor Philip Alston, Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice, New York University, visited the Centre in September. Professor Alston’s visit provided the opportunity for Centre members and associates, as well as invited participants, to deliver short papers engaging with Professor Alston’s work on international labour standards. Papers were delivered by Centre members and associates Sean Cooney, Colin Fenwick, John Howe and Jarrod Lenne, and by Shae McCrystal, Australian National University.
- FairWear International – Fair Work Standard Information Session. This information session was co-hosted by FairWear and the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law on 29 November. The event was held at Melbourne Law School, and over 15 people attended. Speakers: Annie Delaney, Fair Wear; Serena Lillywhite, Brotherhood of St Laurence; and Shelley Marshall, Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law.
- Reconceptualising Remedies Round Table. This event was co-organised by Colin Fenwick with Associate Professor Di Otto, Lia Kent, and Caroline Lambert of the Institute for International Law and the Humanities. The event’s goal was to help generate fresh thinking about whether, and if so, how, to adopt an Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, which would include a mechanism for making individual complaints against States parties to that convention. Some thirty human rights lawyers and activists from around Australia spent the afternoon of 1 December reviewing progress to date; considering case studies of the implementation of economic, social and cultural rights in Australia; and developing approaches to move both the Australian government and the international community closer to the adoption of an Optional Protocol.
Corporate Governance and Workplace Partnerships Project Events
The Corporate Governance and Workplace Partnerships Project is a joint venture of the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law and the Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation, the University of Melbourne. The project holds a regular series of seminars. During 2005, seminars included:
- Mr Gideon Haigh, cricket and corporate governance commentator, on ‘Executive Remuneration and Corporate Governance’ (23 February).
- Professor Geoff Stapledon, Managing Director of ISS Australia, regional headquarters of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), and Professor at the Melbourne Law School, on ‘Institutional Investors and Corporate Governance’ (25 May).
- Mr Anthony O’Donnell, Research Fellow, Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law, on ‘Shareholder Value, Corporations Law and Labour Law: Aspects of the Australian Experience’ (27 September).
- Professor Ian Ramsay, Director, Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation and Ms Kirsten Anderson, Research Fellow, Partnerships at Work Project, on ‘Shareholder Activism: A New Industrial Frontier for Australian Trade Unions’ (24 November) (held in conjunction with Centre sponsor Holding Redlich).
Labour Law Teachers’ Workshop
On 7 July the Centre convened a meeting of labour law academics in Australia to gauge the interest in holding an annual or biennial workshop for teachers of labour law. The meeting was attended by around 15 people who expressed their strong support for the organisation of such a teaching workshop. It was decided that the most appropriate vehicle for this was to attach the workshop to the Australian Labour Law Association national conference planned for the second half of 2006, with the workshop to be convened under the joint auspices of the Association, and the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law. A working group was formed by Centre members Anna Chapman, John Howe and Glenn Patmore; Paula Darvas (Monash University); Shae McCrystal (Australian National University); and Belinda Smith (the University of Sydney), with Anna Chapman as the co-ordinator of the group.