by Rob Sheppard
[Approx. 4-minute read]Unless you’ve been off in that time-travelling DeLorean again, you will have come to the realisation that Australia’s (ongoing) workplace reforms are an issue for your business you can no longer hide from.
Labor governments in WA and Nationally have made no secret of their aspirations to raise working conditions / experience and address a ‘perceived’ imbalance in worker lives…. and this is a driving force behind most of the recent reform.
Let’s recap some of the changes
The following are just some of the reforms in place or on the way for businesses to manage.
- Pay Secrecy bans
- New Casual worker definitions
- Paid Family Domestic Violence Leave
- Multi-Enterprise arrangements (Enterprise Agreements)
- Process for terminating Enterprise Agreements
- Fixed term contract use
- Flexible working requests
- Entitlements for domestic workers (WA)
- Amendments to the Long Service Leave Act (WA)
- Additional record keeping requirements and new pay slip requirements (WA)
And more Bills are being introduced as we write this article!
What does this mean for business?
Simple.
We are back to basic compliance of the law – and there are no ‘grey areas’ when ticking you are compliant.
We are back to basic compliance of the law…
The good news is – this is easy to navigate given it is clearly articulated as to what you must do as an employer.
Although it may seem daunting, having an almost checklist approach to your obligations as an employer means you can quickly and easily see where you have a gap… and likely how you need to address this gap.
With the added bonus…
We know from the hundreds of Clients we help each year that having confidence in being compliant, also helps them physically sleep better too.
We are quite literal about this helping you sleep – because we’re told this by the businesses themselves.
Knowing you are compliant to laws means you also have a solid foundation to build on for your recruitment and retention activities in your workplace. Safe in the knowledge that you don’t have to keep ‘looking over your shoulder’.
And in a post-covid world, helping your teams to be more engaged and living truly blended work/life roles is now almost a minimum retention strategy.
The other thing to consider…
All this clarity does have a flow on effect if you are found to be non-compliant…
…regulators may be more likely to apply penalties!
It’s anecdotal at the time of writing, but we are reading and hearing more instances where this is happening.
What should you do?
To again reiterate the ‘good news’, many of the issues that might be pursued by the regulators can often be easily identified and addressed.
The National and WA State regulators have improved their free resources and support for SME businesses to do this themselves and we encourage you to have a read yourself too.
Here are the three key links our regular readers will likely need the most:
NATIONAL SYSTEM Employers:
WA STATE SYSTEM Employers:
And if it’s all still confusing?
If you need help or have a sense this might be a future issue for you and your business, please click the link below and we’ll be happy to speak to you about any ideas this article has raised for you (or your team).
Thanks for reading!