Write a report to the President of the Fair Work Commission discussing the employment relations issues that can be identified in the industrial dispute between the Maritime Union of Australia and Patrick Stevedores Holdings Pty Ltd in 2015 and 2016?

Operations of Industrial relations nationally and locally have an important role to play in the determination of the performance of the economic and labour market. The prerequisite of management of organisations has been rediscovered and instead of emphasising on command and control, it emphasises towards commitment and control; competency, quality and flexibility have been replaced by insensible obeisance, quantity and task (Budlender, 2009). To keep away with side effects of same, Industrial relations offers solutions and options. Being plural in its viewpoint, it addresses both individual and collective relations, i.e. relations between employer and employee as well as relations between employers and labour unions. To talk in a traditional context, a greater focus of Industrial Relations is upon the collective facet of relations and the significance of labour laws, collective bargaining, an association of employees with labour unions, and right of labours to strike. The prominence of these facets is reflected through the central position of these facets in the domain of IR (Davidov, 2016). Elements of IR such as the concentration of labour unions, coverage of employees through collective bargaining and agreements at the national and regional level indicate the character of the system of industrial relations in a country (Silva, 2008). 

The purpose of the current report is to point towards the employment-related issues emerging as an outcome of the conflicts going between the Maritime Union of Australia and Patrick Stevedores Holding Pty Ltd in the year 2015-2016. It will address the employment-related issues from the perspectives of both the parties involved as well as discuss it through the lens of Australian labour laws. 

Labour legislation surrounding the issue concerned:

Workplace Relations Act, 1996

As mentioned by the (International Labour Organisation, 2016) under its National labour law profile of Australia, the chief legislative act that regulates labour issues in Australia is Workplace Relations Act (WRA), 1996. Its objective is to offer a framework to propagate cooperative work relations that promote economic success and welfare of Australians. Under WRA, AIRC is established and it offers machinery for avoidance and settlement of the industrial dispute, sets minimum claims for employees, permits negotiating and enforcing employment agreements and broadly governs activities and employer organisations as well as trade unions. Along with this, it protects the freedom of both employees and employers to affiliate with trade unions and employer organisations of their preference. 

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