Establishing the right to bargain collectively in Australia and the UK: Are majority support determinations under Australia's Fair Work act a more effective form of union recognition?

Abstract

The optimal legal and institutional framework for facilitating workers' access to collective bargaining is a central issue for labour law. Since 2009, Australian labour law has adopted a novel approach to the issue of whether workers should have the right-and employers, the obligation-to engage in collective bargaining. The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) seeks to promote collective bargaining in good faith at the enterprise level, by empowering the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to facilitate good faith bargaining and the making of enterprise agreements. One of the key mechanisms available to the FWC is the power to make a majority support determination (MSD), in situations where an employer ..