Melbourne Law School - Research Publications

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    Out of the Shadows and into the Spotlight: The Sweeping Evolution of Employment Standards Enforcement in Australia
    Hardy, T ; Howe, J ; Vosko, L (University of Toronto Press, 2020)
    This chapter considers some of the compliance and enforcement challenges presented by employment standards regulation in Australia and the way in which the FWO has sought to respond to the problem of employer non-compliance with workplace laws. We begin by surveying the broader historical, legal, and political processes through which domestic employment regulation and enforcement has emerged and continues to evolve in Australia. As part of this overview, we touch on a number of key developments, including the recent passage of statutory reforms designed to better protect vulnerable workers (Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Act 2017 (Cth)). We then turn to the internal administration of the agency, including the FWO’s attempts to move away from an individualized, complaints-oriented approach towards a more “responsive” and “strategic” enforcement model.
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    Transnational Labour Governance in Global Supply Chains: Asking Questions and Seeking Answers on Accountability
    Hardy, T ; LANDAU, I ; Delautre, G ; Echeverria Manrique, E ; Fenwick, C (ILO Press, 2021-02-17)
    The “language of accountability” has featured prominently in transnational labour governance. For decades now, activists have called on brands and lead firms in the developed world to take more responsibility for working conditions in their supply chains. Private regulatory initiatives are implicitly premised on transparency and market and reputational mechanisms that ostensibly enable consumers, investors and civil society actors to hold companies to account for their labour practices. Yet, there continues to be much debate and uncertainty in international and national fora about the meaning and mechanisms of accountability in global governance. In this chapter, we seek to explore the way in which conceptions of “accountability” in transnational labour governance have shifted during the recent past. As part of this analysis, we consider how accountability has been constructed and contested across different initiatives and through distinct conceptual frameworks. In undertaking this analysis, we apply a set of critical questions, namely: Who is accountable to whom? For what should they be held accountable for? Through what mechanisms or processes is accountability to be assured? By what standards is the putatively accountable behaviour to be judged? What are the potential effects of finding that these standards have been breached? Adopting an explicit focus on the way in which accountability has been applied – both normatively and in practice – reveals new insights into the pluralistic and complex relationships between regulators, intermediaries, targets and beneficiaries.