Recommendation 34 The should be amended to require FWA to dismiss unmeritorious claims at Fair Work Act the conciliation stage. Small businesses get a special mention in the unfair dismissal provisions. The Fair Work contains a mechanism by which the Minister may declare a Small Business Fair Act Dismissal Code. The definition of business” is contained in section 23 of the Fair Work Act. “small Basically, a national system employer is a small business employer at a particular time if the employer employs fewer than 15 employees at that time. This calculation is performed by headcount and is not on full time equivalents. A number of NSWBC/ABI members raised as a result of counting a casual the same as a full-time employee in the calculation of employees to determine whether an employer is a small business employer. Recommendation 35 The definition of small business employer in section 23(1) should be amended to: national system employer is a small business employer at a particular time if the “A employer employs fewer than 15 full time equivalent employees at that time”. Further, for the purpose of calculating the number of employees, employees employed by an associated entity are into account. entity” has the meaning given by section 50AAA of the Corporations Act “Associated This definition is very broad and can include companies outside of Australia. For 2001. example, a company incorporated in Australia may have five employees employed in Australia. Its holding company is based in the United States of America and it has 15 employees. The holding company is an associated entity of the employer in Australia which means that the number of employees for the purposes of the unfair dismissal laws is
Recommendation 34 The Fair Work Act should be amended to require FWA to dismiss unmeritorious claims at the conciliation stage. Small businesses get a special mention in the unfair dismissal provisions. The Fair Work Act contains a mechanism by which the Minister may declare a Small Business Fair Dismissal Code. The definition of “small business” is contained in section 23 of the Fair Work Act. Basically, a national system employer is a small business employer at a particular time if the employer employs fewer than 15 employees at that time. This calculation is performed by headcount and is not on full time equivalents. A number of NSWBC/ABI members raised as a result of counting a casual the same as a full-time employee in the calculation of employees to determine whether an employer is a small business employer. Recommendation 35 The definition of small business employer in section 23(1) should be amended to: “A national system employer is a small business employer at a particular time if the employer employs fewer than 15 full time equivalent employees at that time”. Further, for the purpose of calculating the number of employees, employees employed by an associated entity are into account. “Associated entity” has the meaning given by section 50AAA of the Corporations Act 2001. This definition is very broad and can include companies outside of Australia. For example, a company incorporated in Australia may have five employees employed in Australia. Its holding company is based in the United States of America and it has 15 employees. The holding company is an associated entity of the employer in Australia which means that the number of employees for the purposes of the unfair dismissal laws is
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