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Employment Law (LAWS50064)
Graduate coursework level 5Points: 12.5Online
Please refer to the return to campus page for more information on these delivery modes and students who can enrol in each mode based on their location.
About this subject
- Overview
- Eligibility and requirements
- Assessment
- Dates and times
- Further information
- Timetable(opens in new window)
Contact information
Overview
Availability(Quotas apply) | February - Online Semester 1 - Online |
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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, political and public health 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 ways in which employment law is being shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic consequences, will be 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 modern awards and enterprise agreements under the Fair Work Act;
- the regulation of issues of discrimination under the Fair Work Act and discrimination and harassment under 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 COVID-19 pandemic and economic consequences, the rights of non-standard workers, fair treatment at work, safety at work, work-life intersections, 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
All of
Code | Name | Teaching period | Credit Points |
---|---|---|---|
LAWS50023 | Legal Method and Reasoning | Summer Term (Dual-Delivery - Parkville) |
12.5 |
LAWS50024 | Principles of Public Law | Semester 1 (Dual-Delivery - Parkville) |
12.5 |
LAWS50026 | Obligations | Semester 1 (Dual-Delivery - Parkville) |
12.5 |
LAWS90140 | Disputes and Ethics | Semester 2 (Dual-Delivery - Parkville) |
12.5 |
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
Code | Name | Teaching period | Credit Points |
---|---|---|---|
LAWS70371 | Principles of Employment Law |
August (Online)
March (Online)
|
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
February
Description | Timing | Percentage |
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Written assignment
| Refer to Assessment Schedule on Canvas LMS. | 20% |
Open book supervised exam
| 1 Weeks after the end of teaching | 80% |
Semester 1
Description | Timing | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Written assignment
| Refer to Assessment Schedule on Canvas LMS. | 20% |
Take-home examination
| During the examination period | 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
- February - Online
Principal coordinator Sean Cooney Mode of delivery Online Contact hours 36 hours Total time commitment 144 hours Pre teaching start date 11 January 2021 Pre teaching requirements Please refer to the Reading Guide on the LMS subject page for confirmation of which resources need to be read and what other preparation is required before the teaching period commences. Teaching period 8 February 2021 to 19 February 2021 Last self-enrol date 15 January 2021 Census date 12 February 2021 Last date to withdraw without fail 26 February 2021 Assessment period ends 19 March 2021 - Semester 1 - Online
Coordinator Anna Chapman Mode of delivery Online Contact hours 36 hours Total time commitment 144 hours Teaching period 1 March 2021 to 30 May 2021 Last self-enrol date 12 March 2021 Census date 31 March 2021 Last date to withdraw without fail 7 May 2021 Assessment period ends 25 June 2021
Additional delivery details
This subject has an enrolment quota of 60 students per offering.
All timely JD elective nominations are subject to a selection process, which the Academic Support Office will perform after the timely re-enrolment period ends.
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 be available via the LMS.
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Course Juris Doctor - Links to additional information
- 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