澳大利亚劳动法：在劳动场所反对种族歧视的法律框架

Effectiveness of legal framework in dealing with racial discrimination in Australian workplace

1.Introduction

Discrimination means that an individual is treated less favorably due to a characteristic of him but the characteristic is irrelevant to the matter. Specially, discrimination in workplace refers that a person is treated less favorably based on a particular characteristic such as race, age, gender, politic opinion and so on which has no connection with his ability to do the work. Generally Australian laws strictly prohibit various kinds of discriminations in workplace, but meanwhile set out several exceptions.

This essay focuses on the legal frame in Australia dealing with racial discrimination in workplace and discusses whether it is effective or not. The legal frame dealing with racial discrimination mainly consists of the federal system and the state system. Firstly, main legislation on racial discrimination is made and enacted; secondly, relevant organizations or authorities are set by law to implement the law. After the above two conditions are met, it is concluded that the legal frame is very effective to deal with racial discrimination in Australia.

2.Body

2.1The legal frame in Australia dealing with racial discrimination in workplace.

There are two levels of laws regards workplace: respectively at federation and state level. There are also two systems of courts and tribunals. Australia is a federation consists of several states; each state has its constitution and law system. So the legal frame dealing with racial discrimination should be divided into two levels: the level of the federation and state. This part of the essay will follow the above division and discuss them respectively.

2.1.1Legislations

Federal laws such as Fair Work Act 2009 ( the main law regarding workplace), Fair Work Regulations 2009, Fair Work Australia Rules 2010 and several anti-discrimination acts and so on were made by the Australian Parliament and the Australian Government. At the level of state, there are legislations such as the Industrial Relations Act 1996 (NSW), Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW) and so on, provided prohibitions of discriminations based on race, sex and so on. Generally an employer is prohibited to discriminate an employee or a prospective employee due to his race1. There are also a number of anti-discrimination laws such as Racial Discrimination Act 1975. Racial discrimination may be divided into two types. One type is direct racial discrimination. Direct racial discrimination refers to an obvious discrimination which directly treats someone less favorably if he belongs to a certain racial. The discrimination is so obviously and easy to perceive that it is less frequent. Other type of racial discrimination is indirect discrimination, which refers to a discrimination that is not obvious to perceive but it substantially constitutes a racial discrimination. It usually sets some conditions for qualification which seemed neutral but actually discriminatory. Indirect racial discrimination appears more frequent thus it is the key point.

2.1.2Authorities

1See S. 351(1), the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth); Part 2, the Anti-discrimination Act 1977