Article 10 of the Australian Charter of Employment Rights deals with the rights and obligations of employers and employees to participate in good faith dispute resolution processes, and “where appropriate, to access an independent tribunal to resolve a grievance or enforce a remedy”.

Earlier this year, the Hon. Geoffrey Giudice AO retired as President of Fair Work Australia after a long stint as head of that tribunal and its predecessor, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. In this article, contained in the new edition of AIER’s magazine The Debate Giudice reflects on the importance of the independence of the tribunal, of which he was a strong champion during his tenure.

This article is only one of several that form Edition 3 of the AIER’s magazine The Debate. This Edition of The Debate covers current controversies and includes the following articles:

– Barclay in the High Court – an opportunity lost, Mark Irving

– The Statutory Guarantee of Freedom from Interference: Section 580 of the Fair Work Act (2009), Geoffrey Giudice

– “Nimble, productive but fair.” Can the Fair Work Act produce workplaces like these?, Lisa Heap

– Privacy and work: Can you keep a secret?, Mary Lambert

– Employer response actions in the wake of the Qantas dispute, Sean Reidy

– Productivity and industrial relations – a report of AIER’s second annual Debate, Keith Harvey

– Workplace bullying – eliminating the ‘limbo-dance’ remedy, Michael Harmer with Keith Harvey

– Using the AIER Charter in a tertiary education context, Marjorie Jerrard

 

  1. Executive Member, AIER
  2. Sean Scalmer is Professor of Australian History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at Melbourne University. Sean studied political economy and political science at the University of Sydney, before undertaking a PhD on intellectuals and class in the Australian labour movement. He worked as a research fellow in the Department of Politics, Macquarie University (1998-2004), then as a Lecturer in Sociology (2004-2006) at the same University. He joined the School of Historical Studies at the University of Melbourne in 2007. Sean’s major interests are in the histories of social movements, class, and democracy. orders for food delivery platform workers. [Bio from Sean Scalmer’s Melbourne University webpage]