After WorkChoices

Election campaign flyer for Rudd (ALP, 2007), from the Bob Hawke Collection, unprocessed

The Rudd Labor government was elected in 2007 with a clear mandate to reform industrial relations.

The Fair Work Act 2009 introduced Australia’s national workplace relations system, the Fair Work system, which covers the majority of workplaces in Australia. The Australian Fair Pay Commission was abolished in December 2009, replaced by Fair Work Australia, which from 2013 has been known as the Fair Work Commission.

Election flyer produced by Unions NSW, from the Bob Hawke Collection, unprocessed

The Fair Work Commission, the Fair Work Ombudsman, the Australian Building and Construction Commission, the Federal Court of Australia, and the Fair Work Division of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia are the organisations that make up the Fair Work system.

The Fair Work Act 2009 also established the National Employment Standards (NES) which are 10 minimum terms and conditions of employment which cannot be overridden by the terms of enterprise agreements or Awards.

One of the standards prescribes that an employer must not request or require a full time employee to work more than 38 hours a week unless the additional hours are reasonable, and prescribes the factors that determine whether additional hours are reasonable.

Australians have seen a reduction in working conditions that has resulted from the casualisation of the work force, increased employer expectation for communication outside of working hours, globalisation of the workforce, reduced staffing levels and increased workloads, and the trend toward part-time employment. In 2018, the ACTU began the ‘Australia needs a payrise’, Change the Rules campaign to address these issues.

The 38-hour week is a concept that is not the reality for a significant number of working Australians.