Almost immediately, public opinion rejected the severity of Employers Work Choices. and employees became frustrated with procedural and administrative complexity and the confused transitioning to the new regime. The resulting pressure for industrial relations reform from all proved to be the driving force. The initial product of the Government’s mandate has been the Workplace Relations which came into effect on 28 March 2008. There (Transition to Forward Fairness) Act, has been a lot of coverage of this legislation and its three key elements: preventing the making of new AWAs (whilst introducing Individual Transitional Employment another form of statutory individual contract), introducing a new Agreements (ITEA), now called and award ‘No-Disadvantage Test’ ‘Better Off Overall Test’ (BOOT) modernisation. There have also been a number of other significant but less publicised amendments that affect the interaction between industrial instruments, and employers and employees. In particular, the transitional legislation focuses on enterprise agreements as the primary basis for industrial regulation; including removing the prohibition on incorporation into agreements of terms from other industrial instruments and removing the ability of a party to unilaterally terminate the agreement, reintroducing the arbitral role of the Australian in deciding whether such a termination is in the Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) interest”. The legislation also allows the consideration of former State awards to “public apply to employees who cease to be regulated by an Australian Workplace Agreement (AWA). minor amendments reflect a repositioning of enterprise agreements as the preferred arrangement, supplemented by common law contracts and underpinned by awards and legislated minima (the Indications suggest that National Employment Standards (NES)). many farming businesses are willing to concede to the end of statutory individual contracts, and some are seeking alternatives that being – individual flexibility agreements that assist with workplace flexibility. (IFAs) Background and Purpose of this submission This submission is made in response to the review into the (the Review) Fair Work Act being undertaken by the Panel’ comprising Dr John 2009 (Cth) (Fair Work Act) ‘Review Edwards, Professor Emeritus Ron McCallum AO and the Hon Michael Moore. The
Almost immediately, public opinion rejected the severity of Work Choices. Employers and employees became frustrated with procedural and administrative complexity and the confused transitioning to the new regime. The resulting pressure for industrial relations reform from all proved to be the driving force. The initial product of the Government’s mandate has been the Workplace Relations (Transition to Forward Fairness) Act, which came into effect on 28 March 2008. There has been a lot of coverage of this legislation and its three key elements: preventing the making of new AWAs (whilst introducing Individual Transitional Employment Agreements (ITEA), another form of statutory individual contract), introducing a new ‘No-Disadvantage Test’ now called ‘Better Off Overall Test’ (BOOT) and award modernisation. There have also been a number of other significant but less publicised amendments that affect the interaction between industrial instruments, and employers and employees. In particular, the transitional legislation focuses on enterprise agreements as the primary basis for industrial regulation; including removing the prohibition on incorporation into agreements of terms from other industrial instruments and removing the ability of a party to unilaterally terminate the agreement, reintroducing the arbitral role of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) in deciding whether such a termination is in the “public interest”. The legislation also allows the consideration of former State awards to apply to employees who cease to be regulated by an Australian Workplace Agreement (AWA). minor amendments reflect a repositioning of enterprise agreements as the preferred arrangement, supplemented by common law contracts and underpinned by awards and legislated minima (the National Employment Standards (NES)). Indications suggest that many farming businesses are willing to concede to the end of statutory individual contracts, and some are seeking alternatives – that being individual flexibility agreements (IFAs) that assist with workplace flexibility. Background and Purpose of this submission This submission is made in response to the review (the Review) into the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (Fair Work Act) being undertaken by the ‘Review Panel’ comprising Dr John Edwards, Professor Emeritus Ron McCallum AO and the Hon Michael Moore. The
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