Industrial Technology

Personnel Issues

In what areas can unions represent their members?
Unions represent their members in the following areas:
- negotiating terms and conditions of awards and enterprise agreements
- investigating suspected breaches of award or underpayment of wages
- health and safety and workers compensation issues
- unfair dismissals
- redundancies
- sexual harassment and discrimination claims
- superannuation
- industrial disputes.
Apart from individual employers, what other stakeholders do unions deal with?
Unions also deal with other stakeholders including:
- other industry based organisations
- employer associations
- government
- Industrial Relations Commission
- Equal Opportunity Commission
- Courts.

The functions of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission are:

to facilitate agreement making between employers and employees or organisations of employees about wages and conditions of employment
to ensure that a safety net of fair minimum wages and conditions of employment is established and maintained
to prevent and settle industrial disputes, so far as possible by conciliation, and, where appropriate within the limits specified by the Workplace Relations Act 1996 [WR Act], by arbitration
to facilitate equal remuneration for work of equal value
to conciliate claims for relief in relation to termination of employment, and if necessary to arbitrate whether a termination is harsh, unjust or unreasonable
to deal with matters concerning organisations, particularly registration, amalgamation, cancellation, representation rights, alteration of eligibility rules and change of name.