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Industrial Relations
Compliance still a mind field
Compliance in all aspects of Industrial Relations has always been very tough, and it will continue to be so. Just in the last 2 years we have had four major changes including the Howard government's workchoices in March 2006 which included the formation of a new fine system for non compliance. Then in May 2007 they introduced a fairness test. In November 2007 we had a change of government to Kevin '07, and several months later, they brought in a new no disadvantage test, but have kept the business crippling fines in place.
What does this mean to business? It now means that there is no room for error, as even simple, innocent mistakes can cost business $33,000 per incident. Imagine paying your employee 1 1/2 loaded rates instead of 1 3/4 for one day and receiving a $33,000 fine.
Haycroft's Industrial Relations advisors are aware of the need for compliance in all ranges of Industrial Relations from pay rates and agreements through to unfair dismissal.
ITEAs (Individual Transitional Employment Agreement)
An ITEA (Individual Transitional Employment Agreement) is an individual written agreement between an employer and an employee setting out the terms and conditions of the employee's employment which is lodged with the Workplace Authority when approved.
It replaces any award, workplace agreement or other industrial instrument that would have otherwise applied to the employee and is assessed against a Disadvantage Test (NDT). The NDT compares the agreement to the applicable award and ensures the employee is not being disadvantaged.
Both the employer and the employee must be eligible to make an ITEA and there are some general rules regarding this.
If you are a current client who requires the updated ITEAs at your business, please contact us with your company details and how you would like to receive your updated agreements. If you would like to know more please contact one of our Consultants.
Some General Rules for ITEAs
- The ITEA must be lodged within 14 days of it being signed and witnessed (on the same date by both parties). It will not be able to be lodged if we don't receive it within this time.
- If you are unsure about what info to put in Schedule 1 for the award details, you should speak to your Consultant. This should be done before the ITEA is given out.
- Only clients who had AWAs (and some other individual statutory agreements) as at 1st December 2007 are allowed to create ITEAs.
- If you didn't have AWAs at that time, you may be able to do a CWA, move the staff to us as the PEO, pay under the award, or get someone else to draw up a common law contract.
- Eligible employers may only create an ITEA with eligible employees - which are either new employees who have been employed for less than 14 days, or existing employees who already had an AWA or ITEA in place.
- If they do not have these in place, the options are the same as above for in-eligible employers.
- The ITEA will have to pass a No Disadvantage Test.
CWAs (Collective Workplace Agreement)
A collective agreement is a written agreement, made between an employer and the employees (and possibly a union representative body), which sets out terms and conditions of employment and once agreed upon is then lodged with the Workplace Authority and assessed against the No-Disadvantage Test (NDT). A vote is held by the applicable employees to establish whether or not they agree to the Collective Agreement.
Once approved, the CWA must be lodged with the Workplace Authority within 14 days of being signed by the parties.
It comes into operation on the seventh day after the issue of a notice issued by the Workplace Authority advising that the agreement has passed the no-disadvantage test. Once it starts to operate, it replaces any award that would have applied, but it can't replace an AWA or an ITEA that hasn't reached its nominal expiry date.
CWAs are still an option under new legislation, however, they have to pass the no-disadvantage test. We also keep you up to date with all Industrial Relations issues making sure that you are compliant.
Please call the closest Haycroft Workplace Solutions office to you, or your current Haycroft consultant to discuss how these changes can be incorporated in your business.