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- Title
THE IMPACT OF THE WORKCHOICES UNFAIR DISMISSAL EXEMPTION FOR SMALL BUSINESSES ON JOB CREATION: A STUDY IN THE RICHMOND-TWEED REGION OF NEW SOUTH WALES.
- Authors
Bryson, Ashlee; Howard, Dennis
- Abstract
In the Australian federal parliament, the Liberal-National Coalition government had long supported an exemption from "unfair dismissal laws" for small business, arguing that they discourage job creation within the small business sector. Legislative change that would substantially change the unfair dismissal provisions in industrial relations laws had been largely thwarted because of a failure to have such legislation passed in the Upper House. The situation changed when the coalition won control of both Houses of Parliament in the 2004 general election. As a result, the so-called WorkChoices legislation included an exemption from unfair dismissal claims for small-medium businesses up to 100 employees. That legislation proved to be controversial firstly, because of the limited evidence supporting the claimed dysfunctional effects of the previous unfair dismissal laws, and second because, a priori, protection for employees from unfair dismissal should be a "human right". This study of small businesses in the Richmond-Tweed region of New South Wales (NSW) is an attempt to ascertain the effects of the previous unfair dismissal laws and the exemption on job creation. The approach taken was intensive case studies of a small number of businesses rather than a mass quantitative approach. This allowed a greater level of interrogation of the issues. The research also targets regional Australia, where small enterprises dominate the economy. The findings indicate the previous unfair dismissal laws had minimal impact on respondent businesses and the introduction of the unfair dismissal exemption was not expected to result in additional job creation.
- Subjects
RICHMOND (N.S.W.); NEW South Wales; WRONGFUL discharge; DISMISSAL of employee laws; SMALL business; JOB creation
- Publication
International Journal of Employment Studies, 2008, Vol 16, Issue 2, p141
- ISSN
1039-6993
- Publication type
Article