Welcome,
Guest
|
Administration & Payroll Services
|
TOPIC: Fair Work Legislation
Fair Work Legislation 13 years 11 months ago #12
|
Fair Work Fact Sheet
INTRODUCTION Following its 2007 election commitment, the Federal Government replaced the Work Choices laws with its own Fair Work reforms. While the legislation enacting these changes passed through Parliament in 2009, most of the new law became operative on 1 January 2010. FAIR WORK ACT - COVERAGE Who Is Covered?
Employers and employees in Victoria, NT and the ACT Sole traders, partnerships, other unincorporated entities and non-trading corporations in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania, and Employers and employees of the Commonwealth or Commonwealth authorities.
Western Australian corporations whose main activity is not trading or financial, and Western Australian sole traders, partnerships or other unincorporated entities. FAIR WORK ACT – KEY FEATURES The Fair Work Act has at least eight key features which relate to:
Modern Awards Leave Termination of Employment General Protections Minimum Wages Agreements, and Record Keeping. (i) National Employment Standards Regardless of their Modern Award (see later), all workers covered by the Federal workplace system are covered by the following ten National Employment Standards (NES). Modern Awards, common law employment contracts and enterprise agreements can not exclude or contravene the NES. Along with Modern Awards, the NES are a safety net that can not be contracted out of. The NES took effect on 1 January 2010 and replace the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard. The 10 standards are summarised, as follows: (For full details refer to the following link: www.fairwork.gov.au/employment/condition...t/pages/default.aspx
2. A right to request flexible working arrangements to care for a child under school age, or a child under 18 years of age with a disability 3. Unpaid parental and adoption leave of 12 months, with a right to request an additional 12 months 4. Four weeks paid leave each year (pro rata) (accumulating) 5. Ten days paid personal/carer’s leave each year (pro rata), two days paid compassionate leave for each permissible occasion, and two days unpaid carer’s leave for each occasion 6. Community service leave for jury service (paid) or activities dealing with certain emergencies or natural disasters (unpaid) 7. Long service leave 8. Public holidays and the entitlement to be paid for ordinary hours on those days 9. Notice of termination and redundancy pay 10.The right for new employees to receive the Fair Work Information Statement. Casual Workers While the NES applies to all employees covered by the Federal system, casual workers are only entitled to the following standards:
Maximum weekly hours (see earlier) Community service leave (except paid jury service) (see earlier) To have a day off on a public holiday, unless reasonably requested to work by the employer, and Provision of the Fair Work Information Statement (see earlier).
Parental leave (see earlier). Although the NES generally apply to all employers within the Federal system, the Fair Work Act provides a carve-out for small businesses from the requirement to pay redundancy (Standard 9 above). For this purpose, a ‘small business’ is a business with fewer than 15 employees (including its associated entities but not including casual employees). More details can be found in the above Fact Sheet. (ii) Modern Awards Along with the NES, Modern Awards complete the Federal workplace safety net for employees. The new Modern Awards will replace the estimated 4 000 awards which were up until recently operating in Australia. The Modern Awards are industry-based, will apply to all employees performing work in the relevant industries and occupations that they cover, and address the following ten additional conditions:
Types of employment (e.g. fulltime, casual) Arrangements for when work is performed (e.g. rostering, rest breaks etc) Overtime rates Penalty rates Annualised wage arrangements Allowances Leave, leave loadings and arrangements for taking leave Superannuation, and Consultation, representation and dispute-settlement procedures. (iii) Leave The NES includes minimum leave entitlements for all Federal system employees regardless of their employment instrument. Permanent fulltime employees are guaranteed:
Paid personal/carer’s leave – 10 days per year (accumulating) Unpaid carer’s leave – two days (when needed) Paid compassionate leave – two days (when needed) Unpaid parental leave – 12 months Community service leave – no limit For more information on the leave conditions, www.fairwork.gov.au/leave/pages/default.aspx (iv) Termination of Employment New standards now cover the following:
Termination Notice Redundancy Unlawful termination, and Final pay (v) General Protections Broadly speaking, the General Protection provisions of the Fair Work Act prevent employers from taking ‘adverse action’ (e.g. dismissing an employee, discriminating against an employee, detrimentally altering an employee’s position within the organisation, refusing to employ a potential employee) against an employee because of:
Their industrial activities, or Certain protected rights (including race, family responsibilities, sex, age, disability).
Dismiss or threaten to dismiss an employee in order to engage the employee as an independent contractor to perform the same, or substantially the same, work. A comprehensive General Protections Fact Sheet is available on the Fair Work website. www.fairwork.gov.au/employment/general-p...s/pages/default.aspx (vi) Minimum Wages Under the new law, minimum wages are set out in Modern Awards. For award-free employees (i.e. those who do not fit within an award), the minimum wage is set out in a ‘national minimum wage order’ which is currently $15.00 per hour or $569.90 per week. (From first page on or after 1 July 2010) All minimum wages (those in Modern Awards and the ‘national minimum wage order’) will be reviewed each year by the Minimum Wage Panel and any change will be effective from the first pay period after 1 July each year. Therefore, employers (and bookkeepers who handle payroll) with low paid workers will need to monitor Awards around this time and take note of any adjustments. Employers and employees can not agree to a rate of pay that is less than the minimum wage stipulated in the relevant Modern Award or, where no Award applies, the ‘national minimum wage order’. For more information on minimum wages, visit the Fair Work website. www.fairwork.gov.au/pay/national-minimum...e/pages/default.aspx (vii) Employment Agreements From 1 January 2010, the main two types of employment agreements between employees and employers are Enterprise Agreements and Modern Awards. If no Enterprise Agreement is in place for an employee, the relevant Modern Award will apply. Existing Employment Agreement An employee covered under the Federal workplace system as at 1 January 2010 (before the Fair Work law took effect) would have been employed under one of the following instruments:
Former State Awards (also known as Notional Agreements Preserving State Awards) A Collective Agreement (made under Work Choices) A Certified Agreement (made before Work Choices) A State Enterprise Agreement (also known as Preserved Individual State Agreement) An Australian Workplace Agreement (AWA) An Individual Transitional Employment Agreement Enterprise Agreements can be made by an employer with a group of employees or by more than one employer with groups of employees. These agreements are negotiated by the parties through collective bargaining in good faith, primarily at an enterprise level. Each Enterprise Agreement will need to pass a new ‘better off overall’ test to be valid. That is, each award-covered employee will need to be better off overall under the Enterprise Agreement than they would be if their employment was governed by the relevant Modern Award. A comprehensive Enterprise Agreement Fact Sheet is available on the Fair Work website. www.fairwork.gov.au/resources/fact-sheet...ning-fact-sheet.aspx (viii) Record Keeping It is important that employers maintain comprehensive, English, written employee records for seven years. Failure to do so can result in court action. Pay Slips Employers must issue pay slips (electronic or hard copy) to each employee within one working day of each pay day. This applies even where an employee is on leave. Pay slips must include:
The ABN of the employer The employee’s name The date of payment The pay period The gross and net amount of pay Any loadings, monetary allowances, bonuses, incentive-based payments, penalty rates or other entitlements paid If an employee is paid an hourly rate, the ordinary hourly rate of pay and the number of hours worked at that rate and the amount of pay at that rate If the employee is paid an annual salary, the rate as at the last day in the pay period Any deductions made from the employee’s pay including the amount and details of each deduction (including superannuation) including the name, or the name and number, of the fund or account the deductions are paid into The amount of each superannuation contribution made during the period to which the pay slip relates, or the amount of contributions that you are liable to make, and The name and the number of the superannuation fund where the contribution is made. Time and Wages The following six categories of records need to be retained: 1. General Records:
The employer’s ABN, and The date the employee commenced
The employee’s pay rate (including gross and net amounts and any deductions made by the employer) Any other amounts or entitlements that can be singled out (e.g. bonuses allowances, penalty rates, other entitlements) If a penalty rate or loading must be paid, the number of hours of overtime worked Hours worked if the employee is casual or works irregular part-time hours and is guaranteed a pay rate set by reference to a period of time worked A copy of the written agreement if the parties agreed to average the employee’s work hours, and If the parties agreed to an IFA, a copy of that agreement.
Leave balance, and A copy of any agreement to cash out annual leave, the rate of pay for the leave and when the amount was paid.
Pay period Dates paid Name of the fund, and A record of the employee’s superannuation fund choice and the date the choice was made. Name of the person who terminated the employment (including whether it was the employer or employee), and How the termination took place (e.g. by notice, summary dismissal etc). 6. Guarantee of Annual Earnings Where the employee has been provided with a written guarantee of annual earnings above $108 300 (see earlier), a copy of that written agreement. Self Audit Given the onerous nature of the requirements, and the potential for audit by the Fair Work Ombudsman, employers or bookkeepers may wish to conduct a self-audit. to ensure that your record keeping is up to the required standard. www.fairwork.gov.au/Templatesformscheckl...-audit-checklist.pdf (ix) Other Matters There are other key features of the Fair Work legislation which are outside the scope of this paper, such as right of entry by an official and industrial action. Employers should consult the Fair Work website and their advisor for further information. |
Stephanie Lee
Imprest Business Services www.imprest.net.au Facebook: www.facebook.com/Imprest.Bookkeep "Professional bookkeeping and administration Services"
Last Edit: 13 years 6 months ago by steph.
The administrator has disabled public write access.
|
|
Time to create page: 0.096 seconds