Ethical employment practices and the law

Abstract Notions of what constitutes ethical behaviour must inevitably reflect the moral values to which any given society aspires at any given point in time. Considerations of time and space preclude detailed consideration of what constitutes, or ought to constitute, ethical employment practice in Australia in the early twenty-first century. However, for purposes of exposition, ethical behaviour in employment will be taken to encompass four key elements: respect for the dignity and personal integrity of individual employees and potential employees; respect for, and protection of, the physical and mental integrity of employees; access to ‘decent work’ in the sense of access to an appropriate range of different forms of work, proper conditions of work, security of employment, and ‘feelings of value and satisfaction’ (ILO 1999: 7; 2001); and moderating the practical effects of the imbalance in economic power between individuals who sell their labour in the marketplace and those who purchase it.