BUSM4591 - Assessment 2: Contemporary Issues in Employment Law

Overview

You are required to respond to three separate research-style questions. One response is due at the end
of each of weeks 3, 4 and 5, enabling you to develop and reflect on feedback as you progress through
the course. Each individual submission should be 1,000 words (+/- 10%).
The purpose of this assessment is to focus attention on existing or emerging issues within employment
law that require policy positions to be formulated within Australian businesses. This exercise will assist
you to develop skills in relation to conducting research in legal and social issues, in formulating a clear
and cogent set of arguments, and also in clarifying your own beliefs and opinions in relation to
contemporary issues.
Whether you are working in the law, or in a workplace managing people and/or employment matters, it is
important that you can research law reform and relevant social issues as they arise, clearly articulate
your knowledge and understanding of key issues, and provide quality written responses to questions
posed.

Assessment details

You will respond to three different research-style questions that relate to contemporary issues in
employment law and link to core themes covered in this course. You will submit a response for each
question in weeks 3, 4 and 5, as assigned for that week.
Questions:
• Week 3: Are Australian companies over-regulated in relation to labour law?
• Week 4: Do you believe that Australian employees have sufficient ‘voice’ in advocating for
workplace rights? Or do you believe that employees have too many rights and privileges?
• Week 5: Find an article in the media from this year, or a case report, that relates to
discrimination-based conduct in Australia. This may relate to a claim of discrimination brought
before a court or tribunal, or it may relate to an allegation of discriminatory conduct related to
a protected attribute. Include a URL reference to this media report or case law report at the
start of your response.
From the information provided, explain whether federal or state law applies, describe the
applicable law, and explain whether the applicable legal framework effectively balances the
need to protect, with the need to allow civil freedoms.

Guidelines for answering the questions
You should ensure your research responses directly address the posed question(s). You should avoid
making general and sweeping statements that you do not support with either examples or research (such
as primary or secondary law, or reports).
The research is to be written for an audience that is likely to be educated and aware of labour law and

employment issues. As such, this should be written at a suitable professional level, using employment-
related terms and concepts.

Answer structure
Responses to each of the questions should be presented in the style of a research essay, which sets out
a clear structure and is written for an audience that is assumed to have some knowledge of employment
matters.
This is a research assignment where responses should be well structured with a high standard of writing.
Answers must contain a clear introduction, body of arguments with a clear narrative and conclusions,
such as the following.

Introduction
An introduction stating whether you agree or disagree with the proposition and signpost the
arguments you will present to support your position.

Body of arguments
A body of argument presented in clear paragraphs, with research support for the statements made.
You should aim to make three distinct arguments, which use a clear narrative, as part of your
response.

Research
Research can be in the form of primary law (such as references to statute or case law), secondary
law (which is commentary about the law found in textbooks or journal articles), government or
institutional reporting, or examples cited from media.

Final paragraph
The final paragraph should provide a conclusion to the arguments that have been made.

Referencing
You are encouraged to use AGLC4 (which uses footnotes and not in-text citation) and you must
include a reference list.
The response should ensure that there is adequate referencing and citation made for each
statement made. As such, there is no specific number of references expected, but at a minimum
you should provide one reference or citation for every 200 words. This means there should be a
minimum of five references for each response made. This can include primary law (statute,
regulatory standards and case law), secondary law (peer-reviewed journal articles and textbooks),
government reports and publications, or institutional reports. You should avoid using general
websites for information, unless they represent credible and verifiable information such as
government regulators (i.e. ASIC, ATO, FWC or FWO).

Resources
You should start your research by referring to the course materials, including RMIT reading notes and
text references. You are expected to conduct wider research, for instance identifying suitable journal
articles, case law or media articles that provide support for the statements made in response to each
question.

Feedback
You can expect to receive feedback in the week following your submission. Your feedback is intended tobe
used to inform that week’s research response

Referencing guidelines
It is recommended for you to use the resources in Week 0, which explain how to correctly use the
Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC4) referencing style.
AGLC4 (footnotes) is the preferred citation method to be applied to this assessment. You also
have the choice of using RMIT Harvard referencing style (in-text citation) for this assessment.
You must acknowledge all the courses of information you have used in your assessments.
Refer to the RMIT Easy Cite referencing tool to see examples and tips on how to reference in the
appropriated style. You can also refer to the library referencing page for more tools such as
EndNote, referencing tutorials and referencing guides for printing.

Submission format
Use Microsoft Word or a similar. The assessment will be submitted in Canvas as a file upload.

Academic integrity and plagiarism
Academic integrity is about honest presentation of your academic work. It means acknowledging
the work of others while developing your own insights, knowledge and ideas.
You should take extreme care that you:
• acknowledge words, data, diagrams, models, frameworks and/or ideas of others you have
quoted (i.e. directly copied), summarised, paraphrased, discussed or mentioned in your
assessment through the appropriate referencing methods
• provide a reference list of the publication details so your reader can locate the source if
necessary (including material taken from internet sites).
If you do not acknowledge the sources of your material, you may be accused of plagiarism
because you have passed off the work and ideas of another person without appropriate
referencing, as if they were your own.
RMIT University treats plagiarism as a very serious offence constituting misconduct.
Plagiarism covers a variety of inappropriate behaviours, including:
• failure to properly document a source
• use of copyright material from the internet or databases
• collusion between students.
For further information on our policies and procedures, please refer to the University website.

Assessment declaration
When you submit work electronically, you agree to the assessment declaration.