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Deakin's Bachelor of Commerce and MBA are internationally EPAS accredited. Deakin Business School is accredited by AACSB. MMH349 Employment Relations Trimester XXXXXXXXXX Written assignment – ‘Change...

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Deakin's Bachelor of Commerce and MBA are internationally EPAS accredited.
Deakin Business School is accredited by AACSB.

MMH349 Employment Relations

Trimester XXXXXXXXXX

Written assignment – ‘Change the rules’ campaign

Due date and time: Week 8 – Wednesday, 5 September 2018, 11.59pm.
Percentage of final grade: 40%
Word length 3,000 words (plus or minus 10 per cent, excluding the reference list)
Hurdle details: No hurdle.
Learning outcome details
At the completion of this Unit, students
should be able to do the following:
Deakin Graduate Learning
Outcomes
ULO1 Apply the concepts of employment
elations through an examination of the
cu
ent industrial laws and employment
elations policies deemed to be of
concern.
GLO1: Discipline specific
knowledge and capabilities
GLO2: Communication
GLO4 Critical thinking
ULO3 Identify the views held by the main actors
within the Australian system of
employment relations, with respect to the
cu
ent laws and policies regulating
Australian workplace relations.
GLO1 Discipline-specific
knowledge and capabilities.
GLO2 Communication
ULO4 Analyse the validity of the evidence given
y the main actors to support or refute the
need to change the cu
ent laws and
policies regulating Australian workplace
elations.
GLO1: Discipline-specific
knowledge and capabilities.
GLO2: Communication
GLO4: Critical thinking
Assessment feedback
Students who submit their work by the due date will receive their marks and feedback on
CloudDeakin on Wednesday 26 September 2018, before the close of business.
Assessment task
The Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Sally McManus, stated the following in a
speech given at the National Press Club in March of this year:
We believe in a fair go and we are prepared to fight for it. Working people are not getting their
fair share. We have one of the highest levels of insecure work in the developed world. People
have had enough and want change.
https:
www.efmd.org/index.php/accreditation-main/epas
http:
www.aacsb.edu
Page 2 of 3


McManus’ speech signaled the beginning of a union campaign designed to ‘change the rules’
presently governing Australian employment relations. The campaign is predicated on the belief that
the cu
ent federal legislation and certain policy measures are failing to balance the interests of
labour and capital; that the rules and policies governing workplace relations confer too many
advantages to businesses at the expense of workers’ security of employment and standards of
living. Much of the union angst is directed at the laws regulating enterprise bargaining, but there are
other elements in the policy approach adopted by Federal and State governments that are also held
to be detrimental to the interests of workers, as well as to the economic future of the country more
generally.
The aim of this assessment task is to review this topical issue, and in particular the arguments put
forward by those supporting the campaign and those who are opposed. To this end, you are
equired to answer the following questions:

1. What reasons have been put forward by the ACTU to justify its belief that the cu
ent ‘rules’
are failing Australian workers?

2. In what ways does the ACTU believe the ‘rules’ should be changed?

3. What has been the business response to the union campaign, and what reasons has it relied
upon to justify this response?

4. What has been the Federal Government’s response to the union campaign, and what reasons
has it relied upon to justify this response?

5. Which of these players provides the most compelling evidence to support their reasoning that
the rules need changing or otherwise?
Assignment format and rules
- This is not a group assignment.
- Adhere to the word limit as set out above.
- Set your line spacing at 1.5.
- Do not provide an executive summary or table of contents. This is not a ‘report’.
- Use a Harvard style in-text method of citation.
- There is no recommended number of sources that may or should be cited.
- Papers with no citation will attract an automatic zero. Resubmission is not an option.
- Papers with no reference section will attract an automatic zero. Resubmission is not an option.
- Papers that do not apply co
ect citation format will be marked down. If you are unsure of how to
cite the sources used to develop arguments in university level essays, the Unit Guide lists a
University web-site where this may be learned. Markers will allow some leeway for minor e
ors if a
genuine attempt to apply a co
ect citation format is evident.
Page 3 of 3


- Papers that apply citation to mask plagiarism will be automatically refe
ed to the Academic
Progress Committee, as will all cases of plagiarism. If you are unsure of what constitutes plagiarism,
the Unit Guide lists a University web-site where this may be learned.
Assignment submission rules
- An essay is deemed to have been submitted ‘on time’ when it is uploaded into the ‘Assessment’
folder on the unit’s Cloud Deakin web site by 11.59pm on the due date. When you submit an
assignment, an email will be sent to your Deakin address confirming that it has been submitted. You
should check that your assignment can be seen in the Submissions view of the assignment
‘Dropbox’ folder after uploading, and keep the email receipt for the submission.
- You are expected to keep a backup copy of every assignment you submit, until the marked
assignment has been returned to you. In the unlikely event that your assignment is misplaced, you
will need to submit the backup copy, so work you submit may be checked by electronic or other
means for the purposes of detecting collusion and/or plagiarism. Turnitin is provided on
CloudDeakin so you can check your work against the similarity report.
- The following marking penalties will apply if you submit an assessment task after the due date
without an approved extension: 5% will be deducted from available marks for each day up to five
days, and work that is submitted more than five days after the due date will not be marked. You will
eceive 0% for the task. 'Day' means a calendar day for electronic submissions. The Unit Chair may
efuse to accept a late submission where it is unreasonable or impracticable to assess the task after
the due date.
- For information about academic misconduct, special consideration, extensions, and assessment
feedback, please refer to the document: ‘Your rights and responsibilities as a student’, which can be
found in the first folder next to the Unit Guide of the Resources area in the CloudDeakin unit site.
- Finally, building a portfolio that evidences your skills, knowledge and experience will provide you
with a valuable tool to help you prepare for interviews and to showcase to potential employers.
There are a number of tools that you can use to build a portfolio. You are provided with cloud space
through OneDrive, or through the Portfolio tool in the Cloud Unit Site, but you can use any storage
epository system that you like. Remember that a Portfolio is your tool. You should be able to store
your assessment work, reflections, achievements and artefacts in your Portfolio. Once you have
completed this assessment piece, add it to your personal Portfolio to use and showcase your
learning later, when applying for jobs, or further studies. Curate your work by adding meaningful
tags to your artefacts that describe what the artefact represents.

    Learning outcome details

MMH230 Human Resource Management
MMH349 Marking Ru
ic – Assignment (Trimester 2 2018)

Criteria Very inadequate Inadequate Adequate Satisfactory Very good Exceptional
0 or more 12 or more 20 or more 24 or more 28 or more 32 or more
Discipline specific
knowledge of the Fair
Work Act 2009, as well
as other policy areas that
egulate Australian
employment relations,
demonstrated through an
understanding of ACTU
arguments and remedies
for change.
Total: 15 marks (GLO1)
Demonstrates little or no
understanding of the
ACTU arguments and
emedies.
0 – 4.4 points

Understanding of the ACTU
arguments and remedies is
inadequate. The coverage
contains numerous omissions,
and/or the description offered
is incomplete, extremely
vague and/or contains
numerous e
ors.
4.5 – 7.4 points

Understanding of the ACTU
arguments and remedies is
acceptable. The coverage is
very basic, with some key
omissions, and/or the
description offered is limited,
vague and/or contains e
ors.
7.5 – 8.9 points
Understanding of the ACTU
arguments and remedies is
satisfactory. The coverage
contains only minor omissions,
and/or the description offered is
in parts limited, vague and/or
contains e
ors.
9 – 10.4 points

Understanding of the ACTU
arguments and remedies is very
good. The coverage contains no
omissions, and the description
offered is generally sound, with
only minor limitations, vagueness
and/or e
ors.
10.5 – 11.9 points

Understanding of the ACTU
arguments and remedies is
exceptional. The coverage
contains no omissions, and the
description offered is
comprehensive, and free of
limitations, vagueness and e
ors.
12 – 15 points
Discipline specific
knowledge of the Fair
Work Act 2009, as well
as other policy areas that
egulate Australian
employment relations,
demonstrated through an
understanding of the
usiness and Federal
Government’s response
to the ACTU’s call for
change.
Total: 5 marks (GLO1)
Demonstrates little or no
understanding of the
usiness and Federal
Government’s response to
the ACTU’s call for
change.
0 – 1.4 points

Understanding of the business
and Federal Government’s
esponse to the ACTU’s call
for change is inadequate. The
coverage is limited, and/ the
description offered is
incomplete, extremely vague
and/or contains numerous
e
ors.
1.5 – 2.4 points

Understanding of the business
Answered Same Day Aug 29, 2020 MMH349 Deakin University

Solution

Kuldeep answered on Aug 31 2020
134 Votes
Employment relations
Employment Relations
Name:
Subject:
Date:
What reasons have been put forward by the ACTU to justify its belief that the cu
ent ‘rules’ are failing Australian workers?
ACTU believes that workers in Australia are being ruled by such laws that have harmed their job security and have left them just to struggle and pay the bills. They argue that they were promised by the government to get better healthcare, education and fairer pay in each generation which can be said to be a fair go. But this has not happened because of the Turnbull government as well as some business houses with personal interest.
Sally was heard quoting, “People all across the country are willing to contribute towards the change in rules and get more job security as well as fair pay hike.”
Hence, they raised their voice to change the rules based on the following reasons:
1) According to ACTU, wage theft has continued persistently. The list includes cele
ity chefs, local restaurants; Woolworths supply chain and many more. There are many businesses that just employ apprentice and pay less, some hire temporary workers on visa, some have stolen superannuation of 3 million workers etc. According to ACTU, wage theft is becoming a business model which workplace laws are not able to stop. According to the rules, they have cut down penalty rates also which have hit around 700,000 retail workers. According to Doherty (2018),Uber drivers in the country has an earnings of about $14.6 per hour which is far below $18.3 minimum wages but this is fair according to the law because drivers are not recognized as employees(Forsyth et al., 2017). According to the government, penalty rates were cut to increase the number of jobs and hours of employment which has never been recorded according the research conducted by Macquarie University. In fact, the retail sales have been affected because of low purchasing power and unemployment of workers.
2) Job insecurity is spreading. According to Doherty (2018), casual workers have increased, there is no check on sham contracts, labour employment is increasing, contract workers are there and the named gig economy is growing enormously. According to ACTU, there is a payment of loading to the casuals for over 25% in order to compensate them for poor working conditions like sick leaves and absence of annual leave. This is happening because Fair work act, 2009 is allowing it to happen. According to a decision by fair work commission, workers do not get the right to negotiate when their jobs are being casualized. Sally again quoted, “They are aware about the power of big business houses but they also know the importance of united working people when they become un
eakable,”
3) The minimum wage rules of Australia make full-time workers poor. According to the minimum wage decision in 2017, “it was accepted by the panel that in case the lower paid workers are pressurized to stay below poverty, then the essentials do not meet as well as those who work full time can certainly expect some living standards which would be above poverty line.”
4) According to the fair work commission, they had proposed to provide paid leave for domestic violence, but under the present laws, this reason is not sufficient for them to grant a leave(McManus, 2018).
5) The Fair Work Act does not provide for equal pay provisions to early childhood professionals which mean that the workers are stuck in the situation they have been facing since past many years. The law is not capable of providing equal pay for both the genders who are working in an industry that is female dominated. Still Australia is considered to be on the top of gender equality workforce in the world.
6) There are no rules in the labor laws of Australia to stop the exploitation and abuse of temporary visa workers. Such workers are ripped off as well as abused by their employer’s right with knowledge of the government. Such young workers lived in the houses given by their employer and were also charged high rents for the accommodation. They worked for more than 50 hours a week that too at much less wages than the minimum wage. Such exploitation has been happening in many cities of Australia and labor acts have no rules to save the workers from that (Forsyth et al. 2017).
7) According to ACTU, the fair work commission has been stacked. In 2017, their 14th member was appointed with the majority of coalition government. According to Forsyth et al. (2017), maximum of the commission members are from big business houses which has led insecurity and unfaithfulness amongst the workers towards the commission. The workers now address it as Unfair commission(McManus, 2018).
In what ways does the ACTU believe the ‘rules’ should be changed?
According to ACTU, the fair go must be dependent on two pillars i.e. to have a secure job on which one can count on as well as fair pay. These are the two pillars without which there will be deep inequality in the labor market which must not be allowed. According to the reasons quoted above by the ACTU Secretary, Sally McManus for the failure of cu
ent labor laws of Australia there should be following changes in the rules:
a) There should be limit on casual employment and it should be defined properly in the law. Labor workforce of Australia is being trapped in the name of casual employment. The period of casual employment on an average is about three years which is huge. After this, they are refused to be hired permanently by big business houses so that they do not become responsible to pay them proper wages and give them their rights as permanent worker. Casual employment has to be defined properly in the law. There must be a choice available to the workers to be able to become permanent after working for long period of time with a company as regular worker. They propose that casual employees working with a...
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