|
Employer Action Code: Monitor
Employment conditions and collective bargaining to be modified
The government has introduced into Parliament a Fair Work Bill that aims to provide a framework for good workplace relations and guarantees a set of minimum terms and conditions of work. Additionally, the Bill seeks to creates a new agency, Fair Work Australia (FWA), whose role will include overseeing the collective bargaining process, approving enterprise agreements, adjusting minimum wages and handling unfair dismissal claims and workplace disputes.
Key Details
If passed, some of the main provisions introduced by the Bill will be as follows:
- A safety net, comprising the National Employment Standards (NESs) and Modern Awards (MAs), will be developed to provide a comprehensive set of minimum employment conditions. NESs and MAs will come into effect on January 1, 2010.
- NESs comprise 10 legislated employment conditions including weekly hours of work, leave, public holidays, notice and redundancy pay and the right to request flexible working arrangements.
- MAs will cover ten areas in addition to the NESs. FWA will review MAs every four years, and a specialist minimum wages panel within FWA will review minimum wages in MAs every year.
- Employers and employees may voluntarily negotiate individual flexibility arrangements that vary the application of MA terms.
- The enterprise bargaining framework will enable FWA to require an unwilling employer to participate in collective bargaining if the majority of employees are in favor. The Bill does not use any concept of union or non-union agreements but allows for enterprise agreements to be made if endorsed by a valid majority of employees.
- Enterprise agreements cannot be inconsistent with the NESs, which include arrangements for a 38-hour week. The Bill prohibits ‘pattern bargaining’, by which an agreement by one employer is used by a union to push for the same rights from other employers in the same industry.
- Employees will be entitled to make unfair dismissal claims, but in firms of less than 15 people, workers will be eligible to claim only if they have been employed with the firm for a year or more. Employees at larger firms will be eligible to make this claim after six months.
 Read about the National Employment Standards
January,
2009
The information included in this report is general information only and should not be relied upon without further review by the appropriate professional advisers. Watson Wyatt is not a law firm or an accounting firm and is not engaged in providing legal, accounting or tax services or advice.
| 
