Employment Contracts in the Australian High Court

Abstract

The contribution explains the approach taken by the Australian High Court in recent years to construing and interpreting employment contracts. It focuses on the Australian court’s rejection of principles accepted by the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court, and the court’s assertion of the primacy of the parties’ own written contract in determining whether a work contract is one of employment, and what terms will govern that relationship. It argues that a statutory solution is necessary to ensure that protective labour statutes continue to cover those workers who are the proper objects of those laws.