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Employment Law (LAWS50064)
Graduate coursework level 5Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
For information about the University’s phased return to campus and in-person activity in Winter and Semester 2, please refer to the on-campus subjects page.
About this subject
- Overview
- Eligibility and requirements
- Assessment
- Dates and times
- Further information
- Timetable(opens in new window)
Contact information
Semester 1
February: Sean Cooney
Semester 1: Jill Murray
Please refer to the LMS for up-to-date subject information, including assessment and participation requirements, for subjects being offered in 2020.
Overview
Availability(Quotas apply) | Summer Term Semester 1 |
---|---|
Fees | Look up fees |
Employment Law is an increasingly diverse and complex field of legal regulation governing employment and industrial rights and obligations. In Australia, it comprises the common law of contract and several overlapping statutory schemes including principally the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), Commonwealth and State equal opportunity legislation, and work health and safety statutes. These different legal frameworks can only be fully understood and appreciated in their industrial, economic, social, and political contexts. Those contexts include international influences, dynamic federal-state relations, the tradition of Australian industrial relations with its values of industrial justice, strategic decision-making and advocacy of industrial associations, labour market trends, and new forms of business and work organisation.
This subject explores the field of employment law in detail, with a focus on the processes of law-making and intersections between different sources of rights and obligations. Dispute resolution and enforcement in the field of employment law poses particular challenges, across the different statutory frameworks, and these matters will also be closely examined.
The principal substantive topics that will be addressed in this subject may include:
- The common law framing of contracts of employment and the contracting arrangements of independent contractors and the self-employed;
- various aspects of the common law contract of employment including express and implied duties of employers and employees;
- international labour conventions;
- the constitutional framework underlying the Fair Work Act;
- statutory standards under the Fair Work Act regarding unfair dismissal, minimum wage rates, hours of work and leave;
- the regulation of employment rights and working conditions by awards and enterprise agreements under the Fair Work Act;
- the regulation of issues of discrimination and harassment under the Fair Work Act and equal opportunity legislation; and
- the regulation of work health and safety.
This subject will also examine a number of thematic issues, chosen from topics such as the rights of non-standard workers, fair treatment at work, safety at work, work-life balance, trade unions and freedom of association, employment security, and employment law responses to economic and organisational restructuring.
Intended learning outcomes
A student who has successfully completed this subject will have an advanced and integrated understanding of the specialised and cross-disciplinary field of employment law. This includes a deep appreciation of the intersections and specific contexts and histories of each unique regulatory framework that comprises employment law. Students will have obtained specialised skills to:
- critically analyse and reflect on different literatures that seek to understand the field of employment law through, for example, capital and labour relations, regulation theory and critical approaches such as feminist scholarship.
- engage in a sophisticated manner in debates taking place within Australia and internationally on the appropriate role of the state in regulating labour relations, in addition to contributing to debates regarding the legitimacy of the discipline of employment law within the legal academy.
- interpret and transmit technical knowledge and skills across the field of employment law through addressing problems and case studies of contemporary and emerging issues in the field.
- self-direct legal research in an autonomous and creative production of a substantial piece of legal writing that is thoroughly researched and develops arguments in a highly structured, supported and referenced way, with a high degree of original content.
Generic skills
Students who successfully complete this subject will have developed:
- An integrated understanding of the specialised subject-matter of employment law, through the different legal frameworks governing work relations;
- A sophisticated appreciation of, and ability to engage in, the complex theoretical, policy and practical debates taking place in Australia and elsewhere in relation to employment law and its enforcement; and
- An extended understanding of recent developments in the field, the literature, and the professional practice of employment law.
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
Successful completion of the below subjects:
Code | Name | Teaching period | Credit Points |
---|---|---|---|
LAWS50023 | Legal Method and Reasoning |
Summer Term (On Campus - Parkville)
April (On Campus - Parkville)
|
12.5 |
LAWS50024 | Principles of Public Law |
Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville)
June (On Campus - Parkville)
|
12.5 |
LAWS50026 | Obligations |
May (On Campus - Parkville)
Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville)
|
12.5 |
And one of:
Code | Name | Teaching period | Credit Points |
---|---|---|---|
LAWS50027 | Dispute Resolution | Not available in 2024 |
12.5 |
LAWS90140 | Disputes and Ethics | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
Students who have completed any of the below subjects are not permitted to take LAWS50064 Employment Law:
Code | Name | Teaching period | Credit Points |
---|---|---|---|
LAWS70371 | Principles of Employment Law |
May (Online)
August (On Campus - Parkville)
|
12.5 |
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Assessment
Due to the impact of COVID-19, assessment may differ from that published in the Handbook. Students are reminded to check the subject assessment requirements published in the subject outline on the LMS
Semester 1
Description | Timing | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Written assignment
| 20% | |
Open book supervised exam
| During the examination period | 80% |
Summer Term
Description | Timing | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Written assignment
| 20% | |
Open book supervised exam
| 1 Weeks after the end of teaching | 80% |
Additional details
The due dates of the above assessment will be available to students via the Assessment Schedule on the JD LMS Community.
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Quotas apply to this subject
Dates & times
- Summer Term
Principal coordinator Sean Cooney Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours 36 hours Total time commitment 144 hours Pre teaching start date 31 December 2019 Pre teaching requirements The pre-teaching period commences four weeks before the subject commencement date. From this time, students are expected to access and review the Reading Guide that will be available from the LMS subject page and the textbook and/or subject materials provided by the subject coordinator, which will be available from Melbourne Law School. Refer to the Reading Guide for confirmation of which resources need to be read and what other preparation is required before the teaching period commences. Teaching period 28 January 2020 to 7 February 2020 Last self-enrol date 6 January 2020 Census date 31 January 2020 Last date to withdraw without fail 7 February 2020 Assessment period ends 28 February 2020 - Semester 1
Principal coordinator Jillian Murray Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours 36 hours Total time commitment 144 hours Teaching period 2 March 2020 to 7 June 2020 Last self-enrol date 13 March 2020 Census date 30 April 2020 Last date to withdraw without fail 5 June 2020 Assessment period ends 3 July 2020 Semester 1 contact information
February: Sean Cooney
Semester 1: Jill Murray
Additional delivery details
This subject has an enrolment quota of 120 students (60 per offering).
Enrolments occur on a first come, first served basis up to quota, except for the timely re-enrolment period. Timely enrolments enter a selection process, and unsuccessful enrolments are withdrawn.
Please refer to the Melbourne Law School website for further information about the management of subject quotas.
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
- Andrew Stewart, Stewart’s Guide to Employment Law (latest edition, Federation Press)
- Specialist materials will also be made available from Melbourne Law School
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Course Juris Doctor - Available to Study Abroad and/or Study Exchange Students
This subject is available to students studying at the University from eligible overseas institutions on exchange and study abroad. Students are required to satisfy any listed requirements, such as pre- and co-requisites, for enrolment in the subject.
Last updated: 3 November 2022