How to understand the Fair Work Act quickly – for a fraction of the cost of hiring an HR consultant Forget everything you thought you knew about running your department and managing your people. When the Fair Work Act became fully operational on 1 January 2010, it changed the face of workplace relations in Australia. Changes to the amount – and type – of leave that employees can claim… standards in wages and working conditions… and procedure relating to redundancies and retrenchments… have revolutionised and standardised workplaces across Australia. Yours included. Please be aware: the Fair Work Act is not a small collection of minor legislative edits. The IR system has been completely overhauled. Old laws have been thrown out or altered significantly. New ones have been introduced. Much legal terminology has changed. Here’s just a sample of some of the major changes the Fair Work Act has brought in… Now, you are only exempt from unfair dismissal laws if your business employs 15 or less people, and only during the first year you employ them… If you make an enterprise agreement that covers one to 100 non-union members and one union member, you still have to negotiate the agreement “in good faith” with the union… You must now pass a tough new test to make sure your employees’ leave and entitlements are not reduced when they are transferred to your organisation. There are now 10 new minimum employment conditions all national system employers must abide by. There are now 22 new modern awards that govern your employees’ employment conditions in new ways. Did you know that if you take an employee off a roster because you want to reduce shift loading, the employee may be able to challenge the move under the new”general protections” legislation in the Fair Work Act? Make no mistake – the Fair Work Act will affect the way you do your job and how you manage your staff, so you must comply with it. And the Employment Law Practical Handbook will show you how. It covers the Fair Work Act in FULL – distilling the hard-going legal speak into clear, concise, actionable English – so that you can implement any changes you need to quickly and easily – with the FULL confidence and peace of mind of knowing that you’re 100% compliant with the most significant changes to IR laws in a generation.
