AM MAGAZINE SHELL - Australian Automotive Aftermarket Magazine

HR MATTERSTEN NATIONAL EMPLOYMENTSTANDARDS RELEASED BYFEDERAL GOVERNMENTOn the 17th June 2008, the Federal government released the 10 National Employment Standardsthat will apply to all employees and employers in the Federal Industrial Relations system on itsimplementation from the 1st January 2010. This includes incorporated (PTY LTD) employers butdoes not include unincorporated employers (sole traders or partnerships), who at this stage arestill bound by State Industrial Relations legislation.The entitlements will not only becontained in Federal workplace relationslegislation but also included in the Awardscurrently being rationalised under the Awardmodernisation process.The 10 NES will apply to all employees –including executives and professionals. Thestandards are:1. maximum weekly hours of work – 38hours per week, plus reasonableadditional hours;2. request for flexible working arrangements– parents or carers responsible for childrenof school-age may request flexible workingarrangements if they have beencontinuously employed with the employerfor at least 12 months, employer mayrefuse on reasonable business grounds;3. parental leave and related entitlements –12 months unpaid leave, right to requestadditional 12 months of unpaid leave;4. annual leave – 4 weeks, 5 weeks for shiftworkers;5. personal/carers leave and compassionateleave – 10 days per year personal/carer’s,2 days compassionate leave per occasionof death;6. community service leave – including juryservice and other eligible communityservice activities, such as carrying out avoluntary emergency managementactivity, payment required by employer toa maximum of 10 days of absence atordinary rates of pay (for jury service,payment will be difference betweenemployee’s ordinary pay and the juryservice pay employee received);7. long-service leave – at this stageremaining as per the relevantState/Territory legislation or relevantindustrial instrument applicable to theemployer, such as an Award or collectiveAgreement;8. public holidays – as gazetted by therelevant State/Territory, payment forabsence on public holiday at ordinaryrates of pay guaranteed, employee hasright to refuse to work on public holidaysif the request is not reasonable;9. notice of termination and redundancy pay– in one of the most significant changes,redundancy pay will be reinstated, with alegislated entitlement to severance pay.Previously under WorkChoices, redundancypay was not applicable to those employersin the Federal system, however the newstandard provides for an entitlement toredundancy when an employer has made adefinite decision to make the positionredundant, or is going into bankruptcy orinsolvency. The following table to severancepay (in addition to notice periodmaintained from WorkChoices) shows theproposed legislated entitlement:REDUNDANCY PAY PERIODEmployee’s period of continuous servicewith the employer on terminationRedundancyPay Period1 At least 1 year but less than 2 years 4 weeks2 At least 2 years but less than 3 years 6 weeks3 At least 3 years but less than 4 years 7 weeks4 At least 4 years but less than 5 years 8 weeks5 At least 5 years but less than 6 years 10 weeks6 At least 6 years but less than 7 years 11 weeks7 At least 7 years but less than 8 years 13 weeks8 At least 8 years but less than 9 years 14 weeks9 At least 9 years but less than 10 years 16 weeks10 At least 10 years 12 weeksThe Standard does however provide theability for an employer to make application tohave the amount of redundancy pay reducedbased on an inability to pay or if the employerfinds other acceptable employment for theemployee.10. fair work information statement – similarto the previous government’s CompulsoryFact Sheet, the ALP is proposing a FairWork Information Statement that will beDavid WilkinsonAAAA Industrial, Relations ManagerPhone 02 8448 3211 Fax 02 9993 9709Email hr@aaaa.com.auDO YOU HAVE A QUESTION YOUREALLY WANT TO ASK?For more information and assistance phone: AAAA HRHotline on 02 8448 3211 or e-mail hr@aaaa.com.auThe material contained in this publication is general comment and is notintended as advice on any particular matter. No reader should act or failto act on the basis of any material contained herein. The materialcontained in this publication should not be relied on as a substitute forlegal or professional advice on any particular matter. Wentworth HumanResources Pty Limited (the publishers), the editor and the authorsexpressly disclaim all and any liability to any persons whatsoever inrespect of anything done or omitted to be done by any such person inreliance whether in whole or in part upon any of the contents of thispublication. Without limiting the generality of this disclaimer, no authoror editor shall have any responsibility for any other author or editor.© Wentworth Human Resources Pty Ltd 2008required to be provided to every employeecovered under the Federal IndustrialRelations system, covering information onthe National Employment Standards,modern Awards, agreement making,freedom of association and the role of FairWork Australia.The answer could be justa phone call awayPlease be advised that at this stage this isNOT LAW. It is advised that these standardswill be implemented from the 1 January2010, unless further changes becomeapparent from the ALP government.Should you require further information onthis article, please don’t hesitate to call theHotline on the details below.Before acting on any of the information in theabove article, please contact David, Jill,Amanda or any of the friendly team at theAAAA HR Advisory Service on:phone: 1300 232 462, fax: 02 9993 9709,or email: hrhotline@ada.org.auThe ADA HR Advisory Service is available from8:30 am - 5:00 pm, Monday to Friday. Theanswer could be just a phone call away!AU T O M O T I V E A F T E R M A R K E T M AG A Z I N E AU G U ST 2 0 0 8 47