The Federal Government recently passed the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Act 2022 (Secure Jobs, Better Pay Act) to amend the Fair Work Act 2009 (the FW Act). These amendments introduce a number of changes to the existing workplace laws.
A Few of these changes has already come into effect from 7 December 2022 with several others being introduced or yet to come into effect throughout 2023.
In a nutshell, amendments to the FW Act are as follows:
- Introducing gender equity and job security as the new objectives of the Act;
- Introducing equal remuneration principles into the Act;
- Introducing a positive duty to prevent sexual harassment in connection with work;
- Inclusion of three (3) further protected attributes of the anti-discrimination framework in the FW Act namely; breastfeeding, gender identity and intersex status;
- Restricting the use of fixed term contracts from 7 December 2023 under certain circumstances;
- Invalidating the existing pay secrecy clauses in employment contracts, prohibiting their use moving forward and providing employees with a positive right to disclose, or not disclose, their remuneration and certain other remuneration-related terms and conditions of their employment to any person;
- Requiring employers to take additional steps upon receipt of requests for flexible work arrangements and empowering the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to arbitrate disputes over such requests with the FWC being able to make orders requiring employers to accept requests for flexible work arrangements;
- Terminating “zombie agreements” and enterprise agreements made during the bridging period (1 July 2009 to 31 December 2009) 12 months after the amendments commence;
- Making it difficult to unilaterally terminate expired enterprise agreements;
- Removing the requirement for employee bargaining representatives, such as unions, to obtain a majority support determination from the FWC to initiate bargaining in certain circumstances.
- Making it easier for employees to force employers to bargain for replacement enterprise agreements;
- Empowering the FWC to resolve intractable bargaining disputes sooner, reducing the prospect of industrial action and providing a strong incentive for parties to negotiate in good faith and reach agreements more quickly;
- Empowering the FWC to make supported bargaining authorisations and single interest employer authorisation to force employers to bargain for agreements that cover multiple employers (including, potentially, competitors, external companies within supply chains, or internal group companies, among others);
- Introducing new and re-branded categories of multi-employer enterprise bargaining;
- Simplifying the Better Off Overall Test to enable its application in a holistic manner;
- Removing some of the more prescriptive pre-approval requirements for enterprise agreements, while retaining important safeguards for employees;
- Abolishing the Australian Building and Construction Commission with its remaining functions assumed by the Fair Work Ombudsman; and
- Abolishing the Registered Organisations Commission and transferring its Commissioner’s regulatory powers and functions to the General Manager of the FWC.
These changes require the Employers to scrutinise their organisations’ structure, size, policies, remuneration packages, gender ratios, current industrial instruments and/or contracts, and employee entitlements in light of the amendments to the FW Act.
Contact our Employment and Workplace Relations team here at MBA Lawyers to ensure a smooth transition during this phase of change to reflect the most current provisions of the FW Act in your workplace policies, practices, bargaining instruments and contracts. Call us today on 07 5651 2000.
Disclaimer
The information in this publication is of a general nature and is not intended to address the circumstances of any specific entity or individual. Although MBA Lawyers endeavours to provide accurate and timely information, no guarantee is provided that the information is accurate at the date it published or that it will continue to be accurate in the future.