Legislative Changes That Were Introduced by the Fair Work Act 2009 - Coursework Example

Fair Work Act 2009 Name: Institution: Fair Work Act 2009 Introduction This essay outlines the provisions or the legislative changes that were introduced by the Fair Work Act 2009 with the intentions of achieving these outcomes. It also considers and discusses how effective the Act has been in achieving the stated aims since it started its operations. According to the essay, Australian work relations were under reforms when the Fair Work Act of Australia (Commonwealth) was first introduced in bill form to the Australian Parliament in 2009. There were various legislative changes that Fair Work Act 2009 introduced in an effort to create a system of national workplace relations which is fair to working people, promote productivity and economic growth and flexible for business. Some of the legislative changes that have took place include matters concerning labour disputes, wage cases, discrimination, and dismissal claims among others. In 1st July 2009, the new Fair Work Act 2009 took effect after replacing Workplace Relations Act 1996 (WR Act). The amendments by the Fair Work Act 2009 provide more protection to the employees with some significant impacts on the employers. Fair Work Act The introduction of the Fair Work Act 2009 saw the Australian workplace relations system change in many ways. It introduced new rules and regulations to the workplace relations system that were not there previously. The provisions of the Act were aimed at balancing the needs of employees, employers and unions and protecting their interests. The workplace relations system in Australia changed on 1st July 2009. The Fair Work system took full effect from 1st January 2010 when modern awards and legislated national employment standards were put in place (Australian Government, 2009). There were several provisions and legislative changes that were made in the Fair Work Act that would provide a national workplace system that would be fair to the working people. The first provision that would ensure fairness to working people was the one that required a comprehensive and fair safety net of minimum employment conditions Holding Redlich Lawyers (2009). The Fair Work Act provides a strong net of safety for employees that cannot just be stripped away. The safety net for the employees is made up of two parts. The first part provides the ten national employment standards that provide the minimum work place standards and conditions that should be provided for all employees on an equal basis. These standards covered the most essential work place conditions. These conditions specified the maximum working hours per week, the number of days entitled for leave, the procedures for notices of termination by employers, the public holiday’s privileges, and the right of workers to request for flexible working days or arrangements as illustrated by Bartier Pty Ltd 2010. The second part of this provision is the new modern award. All employees in the Federal system as from 1st January 2010 were entitled to these changes. This section also set the minimum wages for the agreement free and award employees through the setting of a national minimum wage order. The modernization of awards has created a modern industry that is simple and new. This system has streamlined and simplified the previous thousands of awards to the current 122. The section also makes special provisions that enable the modernization of enterprise awards (Nevett Ford Ballarat Lawyers, 2009). The other provision and legislative change that has been aimed at creating fairness is the one that requires the low paid to have bargaining assistance. This is meant to streamline the provision of benefits to the workers who have missed out on these benefits of bargaining in the previous years. The low paying bargaining stream is also meant to facilitate the making of agreements. It ensures that all the relevant bargaining parties get down to business so as to fight for the rights of the low-paid employees (Australian Government, 2009). Another provision and legislative change that has been aimed at creating fairness is the one that provides clear tough rules on industrial action. This allows employees to protect themselves by taking industrial action to advance or support claims during collective bargaining. These industrial actions can be taken by employees or be initiated on behalf of the employees. This section provides sensible options and proportions that enable employees to legally respond to industrial action. The employer is also protected by some provisions of this section. For example, the employer is allowed to withhold at least four hours pay when employees take unprotected industrial action. The Fair Work Act also provides for protection from all unfair dismissal for all employees. Under this section, employees are protected because the minimum employment period is now 6 months. As long as an employee carries out their duties as required, the law protects them from unfair dismissal. The Fair Work Act also provides a balance between family life and work. This is done by making arrangements that encourage flexibility such as family friendly working hours. The amount of money paid to parents when they are on parental leave has also been increased to the National Employment Standards. Workers and employees now have the right to request for flexible working arrangements and the employers cannot refuse these requests unless on very reasonable business grounds. The employees who are care givers at the same time are also protected against any form of exploitation or discrimination by fellow employees or the employer (Legal Access Services, 2011). The act has also introduced new bargaining rules that include responsibility for bargaining in good faith according to Legal Access Services (2011). The Fair Work Act has also brought a lot of changes in the private sector through some provisions and legislative changes. All private employers and employees who were previously covered by the State workplace relations system are now covered by the national workplace relations system. The Act provides special arrangements that are meant to ensure a smooth transition for the transfer of coverage for these employees and employers. Currently, over 96% of all private sector employees are covered by the National workplace relations system. This system provides the employers and employees with the same and equal access to minimum conditions, workplace tribunals, entitlements and rights and laws just as their other public and private sector counterparts as long as they are doing the same job. This creates a balance in how workers in both the private and public sectors are treated by their employers (Australian Government, 2009). The Fair Work Act of 2009 has also created a system that has created a national workplace relations system that is flexible for businesses across Australia. The provisions of the Act are generally meant to address the positive growth of businesses while ensuring that the interests of all the key players are well taken care of. An example of how the Act does this is seen in the provision for fair and comprehensive safety nets. These safety nets are not only meant to benefit employees as assumed by many. They are also meant to take care of the interests of employers. When the employers enforce and uphold the national standards and awards, they are also benefitting themselves because many employees will want to work for such employers. This will ensure that their businesses remain flexible and highly competitive by attracting the top workers in the country and retaining them in the particular organizations. This is also true because the Act provides that the employers must meet certain minimum requirements or standards by providing certain rights and privileges to their employees. These include the provision of essential conditions such as specifying the maximum working hours per week, the number of days entitled for leave, the procedures for notices of termination by employers, the public holiday’s privileges, and the right of workers to request for flexible working days or arrangements (Nevett Ford Ballarat Lawyers, 2009). Another provision of the Fair Work Act that promotes business flexibility is the good faith collective bargaining at the enterprise level. This requires that the employers and their employees make an enterprise agreement. The two parties agree to make negotiations and they proceed to make an enterprise agreement. This agreement caters for the interests of both parties and stipulates what should be done in case one party does not keep their end of the deal. Bargaining enables each side to air their views about a particular issue and to make their minimum requirements known to the other party. These requirements must however be reasonable as stated by National Employment Standards (2009). The Fair Work Act of 2009 also has provisions and legislative changes that promote productivity and economic growth. This is the key purpose behind all the provisions of the Fair Work Act. For example, through providing the ten national employment standards which provide the minimum work place standards and conditions that should be provided for all employees on an equal basis, the Act encourages productivity. When employees feel that their interests and rights are not abused, they tend to enjoy their work and be more creative and innovative. This automatically leads to improved productivity among the workers, which is the basis for economic growth. The number of working hours per week, the number of days entitled for leave, the procedures for notices of termination by employers, the public holiday’s privileges, and the right of workers to request for flexible working days or arrangements are all very important factors for employees. Since the Fair Work Act makes provisions for these special conditions, the workers are more likely to be more productive because their rights and privileges are being recognized, respected and upheld as argued by Australian Government (2009). The Australian Fair Work Act of 2009 also makes provisions for tough new rules regarding industrial action. The employees are allowed to take protected industrial action when they are advancing or supporting claims during collective bargaining. The Act therefore ensures that employees follow protocol when advancing their complaints and other issues. This avoids the occurrence of unnecessary strikes and demonstrations since the employees have been provided with better channels to air their concerns. Such strikes and demonstrations often consume a lot of time and lead to a lot of damages that keep employees away from their work places for long periods of time. When there are fewer strikes and demonstrations, most of the employees’ time will be spent working and doing other economically productive activities. This means that productivity will be promoted and as a result, economic development will be realized according to Legal Access Services (2011). The rights of entry provisions and legislative changes made by the Act ensure that work places are only entered by right and fit persons. These persons are also required to be aware that their rights must be accompanied by significant responsibilities. They do not just have rights. They must be responsible so as to be granted certain rights. This means that they have to show a high level of responsibility before being granted certain rights. With this in mind, competitiveness is enhanced since the employees know that they can only enjoy certain rights and freedoms when they are responsible to certain extents. This means that they are required to work towards attaining certain goals and objectives. Productivity is therefore promoted and economic growth is consequentially realized (National Employment Standards, 2009). The protection of employees against unfair dismissal by employers has also been linked to improved productivity. Fair Work Legislation is providing a flexible, quick, and informal balance towards making sure the employees’ rights are protected from unjust dismissals according to Section 381 as illustrated by Nevett Ford Ballarat Lawyers (2009). This is because when employees are assured of not being dismissed unfairly from their jobs, they tend to be more productive since they are assured of earning a living in future. According to section 383, the new system allows an employee to bring claims of unfair dismissal under 3 circumstances; 1.) Any employee employed by an employer having more than 15 employees should have been in employment for not less than 6months. 2.) Any employee who has his employer employing more than 15people should have been employed for more than 1 year. 3.) In case the employee is not covered by an award, then the worker should be earning remuneration not greater than $106,400. Unfair dismissal claim should be made within 2weeks of the dismissal. This is towards making sure that reinstatement remains a viable alternative where appropriate as argued by Holding Redlich Lawyers (2009). Other changes within the dismissal acts are that a person is not taken to have been dismissed in case he is: Employed for a particular period; Employed for a particular job or period of a particular season; The person was employed under training plan for a particular time. In case he is demoted, this is not considered a dismissal in case it does not involve a considerable cutback in the duties or remuneration of employees. The Fair Work Act has therefore led to the promotion of productivity and has ensured that economic growth is on a steady upward trend as argued by Nevett Ford Ballarat Lawyers (2009). It is also important to consider how effective the Act has been in achieving the stated aims since it started its operations. The initial intention of the Act was to create a national workplace system that would take care of the interest of all the players involved in the workplaces as illustrated by Andrew (2011). The Act has been effective to some extent because it has been able to bring some positive changes to the workplace arena. The basic and fundamental rights of employees are now recognized since they are clearly stipulated in the Act. This has made most employers to respect these rights and most employees to fight for them because both parties now understand their importance. There have been numerous oppositions from certain parties such as the industrial relations opposition. This side claims that the new national workplace systems are affecting small businesses greatly and their future is now jeopardized. The opposing side continues to claim that the promises of productivity and flexibility that were made by Gillard have not yet been realized and according to them, the labor is making false claims by saying that they have been fulfilled (National Employment Standards, 2009). The act has also become effective as national employment standards including 10 minimum conditions have been put in place. These are highly protected by Fair Act of 2009 legislation and they include public holidays, maximum weekly work hours, redundancy pay, leave, termination notice, right to request working arrangements that are flexible as argued by Legal Access Services Pty Ltd (2011). In conclusion, the effectiveness of the Fair Work Act of 2009 cannot be clearly established. As seen in the essay, the Act has been effective in some areas but there are some areas that a lot more needs to be done. The Act was originally meant to bring about positive changes in the national workplace systems of Australia. However, the overall working environment has been improved since the introduction of the Fair Work Act 2009. References Andrew, L 2011, The Fair Work Act and the Referrals Power-Keeping the States in the Game, viewed 5 August 2011, http://www.gtcentre.unsw.edu.au/sites/gtcentre.unsw.edu.au/files/24ajll001_Lynch.pdf Australian Government 2009, Australia’s Fair Work System, viewed 5 August 2011, http://www.deewr.gov.au/WorkplaceRelations/NewWorkplaceRelations/Documents/FactSheets/WRFairWorkBillFactSheetsCOMBINED.pdf Bartier Pty Ltd 2010, Fair Work Act 2009 comes into force, viewed 5 August 2011, http://www.bartier.com.au/publications/publicationDetail.aspx?PublicationID=209 Holding Redlich Lawyers 2009, Fair Work Act 2009-Overview, viewed 5 August 2011, http://www.holdingredlich.com.au/employment-ir-for-employers-publications/fair-work-act-2009-overview National employment standards 2009, The National Employment Standards, viewed 5 August 2011, http://www.fairwork.gov.au/Documents/The-National-Employment-Standards-Part2-2-Fair-Work-Act-2009.pdf Nevett Ford Ballarat Lawyers, F 2009, Fair Work Legislation-Scope and Key Changes, viewed 5 August 2011, http://www.nevettford.com.au/files//ballarat/ballarat_articles_pdf_format/fair_work_legis lation scope_and_key_changes.pdf Legal Access Services Pty Ltd 2011, The Fair Work Act 2009, viewed 5 August 2011, http://www.legalaccess.com.au/%28F%28CLNdUUomI9qPBW1kznWMZWNaeCc_xPXDW8DUJpxZwbFZjnefKT_7A-wNiNkebv5r0O6qk9laB8qbrn2PTuwNNLLs2ZGu79n9qDHDsCLUOJs1%29%29/content.aspx?id=fairworkact Read More