What does a change of government mean?
Immediately, not much. Trade within the retail market will continue as usual. Indicators suggest that there will be little effect on the economy until major economic policy and legislation is changed.
Will a change in workplace law affect the market?
It is possible that changes in employee entitlements will result in a move away from permanent employment into greater use of casual labour and this will have an impact on the market. If penalty rates and other benefits have been traded for increased hourly rates under AWAs then we will see hourly rates dropping as these so called benefits return and we might also see prices going up. This will feed itself into the economy with more widespread price increases or decreased disposable income… but this possible paradigm is a long way off.
“Forward with Fairness”
In April 2007 the ALP released “Forward with Fairness: Labor’s plan for fairer and more productive Australian workplaces”. This plan was outlined in the June/July edition of The ARA Retailer. In summary, the ALP has set down plans for:
- A unitary system of workplace relations brought about either by referral of State powers to the Federal Government, or through “harmonisation” with the States;
- The introduction of ten minimum legislative employment standards known as the National Employment Standards (NESs);
- New awards designed to build upon and provide industry detail on the NESs;
- The creation of Fair Work Australia to oversee the industrial relations system replacing the AIRC, the AFPC, the Workplace Authority and the Workplace Ombudsman;
- Minimum wages set by Fair Work Australia to take effect from the first pay period on or after 1 July each year;
- Establishment of a system of compulsory good faith bargaining; and
- More limited exemptions to unfair dismissal applications and the creation of a “Fair Dismissal Code”.
Following the release of “Forward with Fairness” in April, a policy implementation plan was released in August 2007 and was outlined in the October/November edition of The ARA Retailer. The policy implementation plan gave further detail to “Forward with Fairness” by setting out the following:
- AWAs are to be abolished – no new AWAs may be entered into once transitional legislation is in place and existing AWAs are to be phased out by 2012;
- Employees earning more than $100,000 will be exempt from awards;
- A framework of collective agreements is to be the focus in facilitating enterprise flexibility;
- Awards will contain a flexibility clause to allow employers and employees to enable parties to make individual arrangements within common law contracts of employment;
- The award simplification process is to commence as soon as practicable with key awards to be simplified by January 2009 and all remaining new simplified awards to be in place by January 2010; and
- Longer qualifying periods are to apply to employers of small businesses and a “faster, simpler and less costly” process is to be implemented to resolve unfair dismissal claims.
Young workers
A devoted policy document sets out the ALP plan to provide special protections to young workers. This policy is focused around providing information to, and protection for, young workers. Importantly, this policy does not propose the abolition of junior rates of pay. Fair Work Australia is to have a special responsibility towards young workers with the creation of Young Worker Liaison Officers within each State. These Young Worker Liaison Officers will be responsible for ensuring that young workers have access to information on their rights at work. The Young Worker Liaison Officers will have the duty of monitoring conditions being offered to young workers and any complaints made by young workers to Fair Work Australia. In conjunction with the information and support services of the Young Worker Liaison Officers, a Young Workers’ Toolkit will be developed for distribution to young workers. The Toolkit will set out information on employment issues as well as dealing with common questions and issues young workers are believed to confront in the workplace. The ALP also proposes to set up a voluntary National Code of Practice for Young Workers. This voluntary code is anticipated to deal with matters of both child and youth employment. Presently child employment remains a legislative matter for the respective State governments. It is hoped that the voluntary code can be developed in co-operation with the States and other stakeholders so that National standards may be established in relation to rostering arrangements, training, mentoring and OHS concerns for this segment of employees.
OHS
The new ALP Government hopes to achieve harmonised key OHS laws and regulations across all States and Territories within five years of taking government. The ALP policy released in October 2007 states that the Federal Government does not intend to take over pre-existing State rights and responsibilities in OHS. The ALP does however see harmonisation of definitions, procedures and reporting requirements as an important step towards reducing complexity for businesses. As part of its first phase of “harmonising” OHS laws and regulations the new ALP Government plans to:
- Develop uniform workers’ compensation claim and premium forms and streamline the lodgement processes for these forms;
- Establish ‘one-stop-shops’ with nominated account managers within workers’ compensation insurance agents to enable the servicing of multi-state employers;
- Formulate mutual recognition rules to enable return-to-work co-ordinators to work across States; and
- Develop common guidance material for employers to help improve workplace safety and compliance.
Work and Family
In its original “Forward with Fairness” policy document the ALP set out its plan to guarantee that both parents will have the right to separate periods of up to twelve months unpaid parental leave upon the birth of a child. The primary caregiver of the child will also be entitled to request an additional twelve months of unpaid parental leave which may only be refused by an employer on reasonable business grounds. In response to this and other family friendly policy announcements, the ALP has committed to providing targeted financial support to small businesses in helping their employees balance their family and work obligations. $12 million was committed to a national initiative for the provision of:
- The provision of small grants of $5,000 to $15,000 each to small businesses to pursue family friendly workplace practices;
- The distribution of business and industry-specific information and provision of associated business support; and
- The employment of experts in each State and Territory office of Fair Work Australia to liaise with local small businesses and other groups pursuing family friendly workplace practices.
