Labour Law and the Realities of Working Life is a valuable contribution to the debate about labour laws in Australia and their protective purpose, in light of key High Court of Australia decisions in the areas of employee/contractor distinction, implied rights, adverse action, collective bargaining and the right to strike.Utilising critical contract theory Schofield-Georgeson critiques these decisions and argues they have 'read down' labour law in the interests of capital.Describing this as a shift from protective labour law to the rise of the contract and 'legal formalism', he contends that this reliance on the law of contract ignores the reality of working life and inequality and reflects 'judicial neoliberalism'.While not everyone will agree with his view, the book's strength is its deep analysis and critical lens of the cases reviewed and evaluation of whether labour law is serving its protective purpose.In addition, in the final chapter -What can be done?there are also proposed remedies to the issues identified, which again will no doubt spark debate.
Julie Gordon (Mon,) studied this question.