Employment Relations -Business Improvement Update
Key Industrial Legislation Changes
and want to bargain with those other employers. • This will only apply to employers with at least 20 employees and who are not covered by another enterprise bargaining agreement which has nominally expired. Enterprise agreements • The Fair Work Commission will be able to consider the views of the parties to an enterprise agreement as to whether a proposed agreement passes the Better Off Overall Test (“BOOT”). From December 6 6. Fixed Term Employment contracts for a specified term (includes fixed term contracts) With some exceptions: • fixed term or maximum term contracts entered prior to 7 December 2023. • employees whose remuneration exceeds the high- income threshold (currently $162,000) • employees with specialised skills who are employed to complete a specified task. • employees who replace permanent employees on leave or for emergency situations. • apprentices and trainees. • where the provisions of a Modern Award allow • Some of these changes are already in effect while others will gradually come into effect during 2023.
Members and hospitality and associated businesses may be aware with recent announcements on December 6 last year the Federal Government made significant amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). A summary of the key changes summarised below.
From December 7, 2022 1. Pay secrecy
• Pay secrecy clauses in existing employment contracts no longer have any legal effect and are banned from being included in future contracts. • Employees now have a workplace right (protected by law) to openly discuss their remuneration with one another. 2. Anti-discrimination • Existing protected discriminatory attributes have been extended to include breastfeeding, gender identity and intersex status.
From March 6 3. Sexual harassment
• Employers will have a positive duty to proactively take reasonable measures to eliminate, as far as possible, unlawful sexual harassment and sex discrimination in the workplace and to manage these risks in a similar way to health and safety risks. • Unless employers can demonstrate that they have taken such measures, they may be held vicariously liable for the sexual harassment behaviour of their employees. From June 6 4. Flexible work requests and requests to extend parental leave. By June 6 (unless proclaimed earlier) 5. Enterprise bargaining Two new multi-employer bargaining streams will come into effect, namely: • “Supported bargaining agreements”, in terms of which the Fair Work Commission or the Minister for Employment and Workplace relations may require multiple employers in low paid industries, or which have common industries, to bargain together; and • “single interest employer authorisations”, in terms of which the Fair Work Commission may direct certain employers to bargain with other employers if their employees have clearly identifiable interests
7. Family and Domestic Violence Leave New paid leave entitlement
• The Fair Work Act 2009 provides for 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave to all employees, in line with the following dates. • From 1 February 2023, for employees of non-small business employers (employers with 15 or more employees) • From 1 August 2023, for employees of small business employers (employers with less than 15 employees, including casuals). • All employees, including full-time, part[1]time and casual employees, can access up to 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave (FDVL) in a 12-month period. • Note Does not accrue year to year Not recorded as domestic leave to protect the individual TBD. Upcoming Bi- Monthly Webinars 2023 Schedule • Tuesday April 4 - 11am • Tuesday June 6 - 11am • Tuesday August 8 - 11am • Tuesday October 3 - 11am • Tuesday December 5 - 11am
Enquires? Contact Merv Saltmarsh E: merv@tha.asn.au Ph: 0407869924
31 Tasmanian Hospitality Review Feb/Mar Edition
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