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Unit Synopsis
The Australian employment legal relationship is complex and varied. This unit is structured under three themes and modules. They are (1) entering the employment relationship (2) regulating the employment relationship and (3) ending the employment relationship. The main focus of the unit is the federal Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the FWAct) and the common law contract of employment. This FWAct dominates Australian employment law and is increasingly encroaching upon other areas such as sexual harassment and discrimination which were traditionally the domain of other statutes. Understanding the FWAct is crucial to practising in this area in Australia. Students from international jurisdictions may see some similarities if they come from Common Law countries. However, by and large Australia has a unique system that is not replicated elsewhere in the world.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Pre-requisite: 24 credit points of law units Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2024
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 40% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 60% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 88.89% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 32.73% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: Unit Coordinator
Scaffolding of assessments
Explain scaffolding and how it works to students so they may be empowered in improving their performance with each assessment item.
Assessments were discussed at workshops in the context of the learning outcomes and graduate attributes.
Source: Unit Coordinator
Reinforce basic skills of reading amending statutes
Consider including more formative opportunities to follow the amendments to current statutes.
Amending statutes were uploaded to Moodle and discussed at workshops.
Source: Student surveys
100% of surveyed students agreed this unit provided clear unit requirements, useful knowledge/skills, learning assessments, and was directly relevant to their degree.
Continue to apply the multi-faceted teaching and learning model.
In Progress
Source: Student surveys
Some students would like a more recent prescribed textbook and guidance on workplace investigations, employment ADR, and settlement agreements.
A newer prescribed textbook should be selected, and additional materials and assessments concerning workplace investigations, employment ADR, and settlement agreements should be provided.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Interpret and apply Australian employment law principles to fact scenarios in order to develop problem solving skills and legal reasoning.
- Critically examine themes and trends in Australian employment law.
- Develop cross cultural competency skills through an examination of employment discrimination laws.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • |
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | ||
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | |
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | ||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |