|
This Bill was introduced into the House of Representatives on 2 November 2005 and into the Senate on 10 November 2005. It is understood that the federal government is hoping to get the Bill passed before the end of the year and introduced in the first quarter of 2006.
The Bill is described as a measure "to improve productivity, increase wages, balance work and family life, and reduce unemployment". Some of its objectives, as described in the explanatory document that supports the Bill, are to:
- simplify the complexity inherent in the existence of six workplace relation jurisdictions in Australia by creating a national workplace relations system that will apply to a majority of Australia's employers and employees
- establish an independent body called the Australian Fair Pay Commission (AFPC), to set and adjust minimum and award classification wages, minimum wages for juniors, trainees/apprentices and employees with disabilities, minimum wages for piece workers and casual loadings
- enshrine in law minimum conditions of employment - annual leave, personal/carer's leave (including sick leave), parental leave (including maternity leave) and maximum ordinary hours of work - which, along with the wages set by the AFPC, will be called the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard (the Standard) and will apply to all employees in the national system
- place a greater emphasis on direct bargaining between employers and employees by replacing the certification and approval process for making agreements with a simpler streamlined lodgment only process
- improve regulation of industrial action while protecting the right to take lawful industrial action
- retain a system of awards that will be simplified to ensure that they provide minimum safety net entitlements;
- protect certain award conditions - public holidays, rest breaks (including meal breaks), incentive-based payments and bonuses, annual leave loadings, allowances, penalty rates, and shift/overtime loadings - in the agreement making process so that these conditions can only be modified or removed by specific provisions in an agreement
- preserve specific award conditions - long service leave, superannuation, jury service and notice of termination - for all current and new award reliant employees, and permit other award conditions - annual leave, personal/carer's leave, parental leave - to apply to current and new award reliant employees if they are better than the conditions provided in the Standard
- encourage employers and employees to resolve their disputes without the interference of third parties by introducing a model dispute settlement procedure that includes a range of dispute settling options for all award and Standard reliant employers and employees, and employers and employees covered by agreements that do not contain dispute settling procedures
- improve protections for employers and employees by extending the compliance regime in the WR Act to cover the Standard, agreement making, and State award and agreement reliant employers and employees that are brought into the national system, and
- put in place comprehensive transitional arrangements for employers and employees entering the federal system and employers and employees currently in the federal award system who will not be covered by the new federal system.
The Australian states have all strongly condemned the new Bill. The following are some of the views expressed:
- moves incorporated employers and employees currently operating under state systems of industrial relations into the federal system with no choice in the matter
- only businesses which are considered to be financial or trading corporations will be covered by the laws, employers may need advice to determine how they are affected
- businesses may need dedicated industrial relations expertise in order to understand and comply with the laws
- businesses will be pressured to negotiate workplace agreements with each individual employee, costing time and money
- takes away the right of up to 4 million workers to seek a remedy if they feel they have been unfairly dismissed
- allows workers to be employed under agreements that provide just five minimum conditions - workers will lose award provisions for overtime, rest breaks, redundancy pay, shift allowances, penalty rates, and public holiday pay
- gives wage-fixing powers to a new Fair Pay Commission, with an implied mandate to award lower minimum wage increases.
The NSW Government has announced that it will proceed with a High Court challenge to the new legislation and expects all of the other States to join the legal action.
...back to 24 November 2005
Further information:
Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Bill 2005
New South Wales - Workplace relations legislation introduced into federal parliament
Northern Territory - Territory Government defends workers' rights
Queensland - The Queensland position
South Australia - Howard's Work Laws - Truth Overboard
Tasmania - Tasmanian Legislation to Protect Workers
Victoria - The Impact of The Workplace Relations Amendment on Australian Working Families
Western Australia - Labour Relations Newsletter
|
For Payroll and Human Resource Professionals
