'Australian Charter of Employment Rights' edited by Mordy Bromberg & Mark Irving
‘Australian Charter of Employment Rights’
- Edited by Mordy Bromberg SC & Mark Irving, with a Forward by Bob Hawke
This book aims to provide political debate and a blueprint for the future of industrial relations.
From the back of the book:
The Charter is a back to basics attempt to define the rights of workers and employers. It is a simply expressed contemporary document that draws upon international as well as uniquely Australian rights and values to create a set of rights and obligations which all workplaces are encouraged to adopt and observe. The Charter enables a critique of current labour laws and any proposals for change.
The Australian Charter of Employment Rights is the collaborative effort of seventeen of Australia’s leading IR practitioners, lawyers and economists, edited by Mordy Bromberg and Mark Irving.
Mordy Bromberg is a senior Counsel at the Victorian Bar with extensive international and domestic experience in labour law. Mark Irving is a barrister who specialises in industrial and anti-discrimination law and is widely published.
The charter is the initiative of the Australian Institute of Employment Rights, an independent tripartite body representing workers, employers and the public interest.
A review by Keith Harvey:
Where to now for employment rights?
The demise of the Howard government and WorkChoices opens up a new future for industrial relations in Australia. The Rudd government has a plan for replacing the current laws with a fairer system, but many questions remain unanswered about the proper basis for industrial legislation in this country.
What are the fundamental workplace rights that should be enshrined in new legislation? How do we know what’s fair and what’s not in the workplace?
The Australian Institute of Employment Rights [AIER] – an independent think tank concerned about these issues – has published a handy Australian Charter of Employment Rights which attempts to answer this question.
The Charter – developed after lengthy consultation – identifies 10 key rights taken from international labor conventions, Australian custom and practice and common law.
The Charter has been published in book form and each of the 10 key rights is supported by a chapter written by prominent experts in the field of industrial relations.
The need for collective action in support of workers’ rights has never been more important. Unions need to re-assert their importance as self-help community groups and are entitled to organise in a legal framework which recognises their importance.
The Australian Charter of Employment Rights will help all unionists and others interested in employee rights to judge and act in support of these rights, fundamental to any decent society.
The Australian Institute of Employment Rights, Australian Charter of Employment Rights, Hardie Grant Books, 2007.
