Review the Industrial Relations Act 1979 and use your own words to explain the provisions related to:
The Industrial Relations Act 1979 is an important Act in WA that covers all Industrial Relations interests related to employer and employees. Industrial Relations interact providing solutions to all issues involving awards, claims, contractual benefits denied, industrial agreements or unfair dismissals. This act indicates the appropriate way to behave according to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission when there is an issue to be solved (Employment Law Centre of WA, 2013).
Industrial Awards are an essential part of the Industrial relations process (Jones and Martain, 2014) as it is indicated in the Industrial Relations Act, Part 2, Division 2A. Awards are defined as legally involving agreements that cannot be broken related to documents from industrial tribunals that determines the industrial requirements and conditions and minimum wages for employees integrated in that sector (Jones and Martain, 2014).
Cititores is an important component in the retail sector in WA. The General Retail industry Award 2010, needs to be applied considering all Citistores employees. Also, the same financial reward needs to be applied to all employees in the retail sector in WA.
Collective agreements relate to the procedures when employers and employees find the best way to make agreements about terms and conditions for them, considering good faith deal to proceed with this kind of negotiation. The Industrial Relations Act 1979, Part 2, Division 2B, says that collective questions and reflections are motivated at the workplace, supporting to create business agreements that can provide more chances for better employment conditions. Under this section, an organization might act on the behalf of the workforce whose employment is planned to be subject to a projected collective agreement in situations where at least one of the employees, on behalf of all other employees, have asked for the organization’s response in writing, and that employee is anassociate of the organization or is qualified to become one (Creighton & Forsyth, 2012). A bargaining agent is a person who is appointed by a negotiating party for being a bargaining agent for a proposed collective agreement. The person is an agent if a copy of the appointment is present with the negotiating party and the appointment is not dismissed (Morley & Stephenson, 2015). Under section 12 of the Legal Profession Act 2008, authorisation of a bargaining agent includes only to offer advice and other services that are related to the bargaining for a collective agreement.Initiation of the bargaining process is carried out by a group of employees or any employer providing each other a negotiating party and filing of a written notice in the office of the Registrar by complying with subsection (3)
Employers and employees should start these kinds of negotiations seeking for an appropriate enterprise agreement covering both sides. In this act, it is absolutely necessary that collective agreements be in accordance with the 10 Minimum National Employment Standards procedures (Jones and Martain, 2014). The National Employment Standards (NES) constitutes of 10 minimum employment rights that employees are bound to receive. NES and the national minimum wage constitute the minimum entitlements for Australianemployees (Fair Work Ombudsman, 2017).The 10 minimum NES entitlements are as follows:
NES covers every employees under the national workplace relations system irrespective of the registered agreement, award or employment contract that applies.
The Industrial Relations Act 1979, Part 2, Division 3B, says that any employee, being a member of any union can be chosen by them as their representative during some negotiations. The union can represent the industrial matters related to the employee considering the work that needs to be developed during the agreement that needs to be done. All employees are free to cancel the union services and the union will not provide more services to these employees (Jones and Martain, 2014).
Review the Minimum Conditions of Employment Act 1993 and explain the key issues this legislation addresses, in your own words.
The Minimum Conditions of Employment Act 1993 is very important to all employers and employees in WA. It offers protection for all staff related to the safety net (Minimum Conditions of Employment Act, 1993). For that reason every award, employee contract or agreements should be aligned with the basic conditions of employment according to the law.
When an employer tries to provide an employee with an inappropriate work contract that does not follow the law and these minimum conditions, such as no more than two weeks annual leave, then there is a chance the employment contract can be legally affected.
The minimal conditions are:
Moderate hours of work: moderate hours of work are based on the maximum hours of work being reasonable, as the act says. All employees cannot be summoned to work more 38 hours per week, but if there is an industrial agreement for that including extra hours, it should be considered acceptable (Fair Work Act, 2009).
Minimum rates: Have particular rates of remuneration calculated per hour and per week, considering the employee’s level or age
Paid leave: It is calculated by employers using the employees’ rights for pay leave. Also there is unpaid leave, such as family care, voluntary work, studies, illness, injury, etc.
Minimum conditions for employment changes with significant effect, and redundancy: employers needs to communicate to all employees if there is any change for the redundancy. This act does not establish rules to employers, in regards to informing employees after a decision has been made and considering the fact that it could cause some damage to them.
Keeping of records:Employers must control who has access to the employees’ records, and all requests to consult employees’ records should be made in writing.
There are employer rules about how to grant leaves, wages, redundancies and procedure about record maintaining requisites established in the Minimum Conditions of Employment Act 1993. (Department of Commerce, 2016).
Review the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (WA) and explain the key issues this legislation addresses, in your own words.
Nowadays, the commonwealth laws and some states are forbidding any kind of discrimination and harassment in the work environment. For every company, employers and employees should make sure that their actions are in accordance with the relevant legislation when they are developing their professional activities. It can include selection and recruitment procedures, all services or provision of goods (Department of Commerce, 2016). The Equal Employment Opportunity Act 1984 is considered an anti discriminatory law, and all employees and employersin WA should be aware about it.
This act has some objectives, such as:
If Citistores makes a job advertisement that approaches only candidates with private school education on their resume, then this scenario could be discriminating against people who do not have private school education on their resume anddoes not comply with what the act says.
These two kinds of harassment consider any type of comments or how internal or external clients behave among each other, as well as inappropriate comments or behaviour related to race.
Gender equality in the work environment should be monitored by companies as this topic is very important. In the retail scenario, it is normal to have more female employees due to the flexibility that this industry provides. Regardless of this, it is fundamental that employers understand the reason and make sure that all selection and recruitment procedures are conducted by both genders in a fair way.
Nowadays, for all types of organisations to have and keep a good reputation through their community members, it is essential the organisation opens its door to all individuals indifferent of age, race, disabilities, religion, gender, etc. When organisations create their own policies based on the Equal Employment Opportunity Act 1984 to maintain the workplace free of harassment and discrimination, it supports the organisation to make sure that the laws have been followed in the workplace.
Review the Fair Work Act 2009 and the Fair Work Regulations 2009. In your own words, explain the key issues addressed in this legislation relating to:
All employer and employeerelations in this country are conducted by the Fair Work Regulations 2009 and the Fair Work Act 2009. These acts are developed to provide a safety net for all employees in Australia.
Nowadays 122 modern awards have been developed by the Fair Work Commission in this country. These numbers of awards include the minimum wages and certain conditions related to each industry, according to the Fair Work Act 2009. Modern awards should be aligned with the National Employment Standard following the minimum conditions about employability.
This award can be applied in the whole country or if there are differences about rules in another state, it should be considered. Awards developed for employees managed by the national system are considered modern awards. The Fair Work Act determines what modern awards should contain, such as normal/acceptable work hours, maximum work hours and annual leave as examples of basic demands (Fair Work Act, 2009).
In case an Award’s part or business agreement violates the National Employment Standards in any context, after that the related award or business agreement will have no legal validation (Fair Work Act, 2009).
When an employee or a group reach an agreement about terms and conditions, this action is called collective agreement. Bargaining is the procedure used to achieve the goals established on that agreement improving terms and conditions related to any kind of employment.
Complying with what the legislation says, every agreement should contain the established conditions in the Fair Work Act and include the 10 National Minimum Standards and have better outcomes comparing to a basic award (Fair Work Act, 2009).
Employees should also have a union representative acting on their behalf during the whole bargaining procedure. Considering the bargaining duration, all employees and employers and their representatives need to behave in good faith.
All requirements related to good faith bargaining and procedures involving bargaining representatives should be in accordance with Fair Work Act, 2009.The Fair Work Act 2009 says that when a business agreement is applied to staff, after that the modern award cannot be applied. Staff can be benefited by only one business agreement at a time, considering another agreement in the future can be chosen after the first agreement has its date expired (Fair Work Act, 2009).
Besides the modern award that is part of the Fair Work Act 2009, the National Employment Standards can be applied to employees working in this country. Also the NES has the minimum work conditions described for all. It has 10 minimum rights for all employers to put into practice and provide a better workplace to their employees. Every award enterprise agreement should contain these work conditions included, such as: (Fair Work Act, 2009).
The Fair Work Act confirms unions’ rights to entry. When an employee needs to have their union enter the work environment, the union possibly may they get in. Also, the union can enter when there is an authorization from the Fair Work Commission, depending of the case. This kind of scenario can happen when there is some breach in the work environment, such as some issues related to industry awards (Fair Work Act, 2009).
All these laws have been implemented to ensure that companies and organisations are maintaining their work environment free from any kind of discrimination. Nowadays we can deal with direct and indirect discrimination. When certain actions or a policy do not include a group of employees in comparison with other groups, it can be considered direct discrimination, at the same time when there is a policy or actions benefiting all employees. However, some employees are unable to comply with the rules established and are disadvantaged because of this, and then this may be considered indirect discrimination (Jones & Martian, 2014).
There are many pieces of legislation that have been created and put into practice to all employers and employees in this country, making sure that any type of discrimination are eliminated in work places, such as:
Review Chapter 2, Part 2 – 4, Division 4 of the Fair Work Act 2009 related to the approval of Enterprise Agreements.
Enterprise agreements are combined and done by people acting in groupat a business level among employees and employers. They are developed to protect certain employment conditions related to a company.
Agreement in general needs to be in accordance with the National Employment Standards andit goes above the applicable Award related to that industry. Complying with these basic standards, all enterprises agreements need to include rates of pay, methods of dispute and resolution, all employment conditions and deduction of payments.
According to the Fair Work Act, Citistores employers and employees need to follow all previous steps and after that be able to make an application to the Fair Work Commission.Employers must make sure all employees have a copy of the agreement. This document needs to have the agreement described and any extra related documents need to be included.Employers need to make sure that the terms of the suggested agreements are easy to understand for all employees involved in the agreement.
Employers need to announce to all employees 21 days before the suggested agreement comes into force. This announcement needs to contain information about the time, day, and place that the voting section will be done. The voting section will be developed by the employees’ representational entitlements. Considering only one enterprise agreement, this agreement can be made if there are more people among those employees that voted for that certain agreement to be approved.After an enterprise agreement ise accepted, this enterprise agreement needs to have a bargaining representative to apply it to the Commission for improvement. This application needs to be presented to the commission in fourteen days after the agreement is made. It can be done by post, in person or by email (Fair Work Act 2009).
References:
Commonwealth Consolidated Acts. (n.d.). Fair Work Act. (2009). Retrieved from https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/fwa2009114/
Commonwealth Consolidated Acts. (n.d.). Sexual Discrimination Act 1984. Retrieved from https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/sda1984209/
https://blackboard.northmetrotafe.wa.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/execute/content/blankPage?cmd=view&content_id=_381704_1&course_id=_4713_1
https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/atoms/files/minimum_conditions_of_employment_booklet.pdf
Creighton, B., & Forsyth, A. (Eds.). (2012). Rediscovering Collective Bargaining: Australia’s Fair Work Act in International Perspective. Routledge.
De Wit, F. R., Greer, L. L., & Jehn, K. A. (2012). The paradox of intragroup conflict: a meta-analysis.
Department of Commerce. (2016). Minimum Conditions of Employment. Retrieved from
Department of Commerce. (2016). What is Discrimination?, retrieved from https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/books/inc-guide-incorporated-associations-western-australia/what-discrimination
Department of the Premier and Cabinet. (2016). Industrial Relations Act 1979. Retrieved from https://www.slp.wa.gov.au/pco/prod/FileStore.nsf/Documents/MRDocument:28896P/$FILE/Industrial%20Relations%20Act%201979%20-%20[14-e0-01].pdf?OpenElement
Employment Law Centre of WA. (2013). Industrial Relations Act. Retrieved from https://elcwa.org.au/glossary/industrial-relations-act-1979-wa/
Equal Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). Equal Opportunity Act 1984. Retrieved from https://www.eoc.wa.gov.au/about-us/equal-opportunity-act-1984
Fair Work Ombudsman. (2017). Fair Work Ombudsman. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employee-entitlements/national-employment-standards
Federal Register of Legislation. (n.d). Age Discrimination Act 2004. Retrieved from https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2010C00155
Federal Register of Legislation. (n.d.). Disability Discrimination Act (1992). Retrieved from https://www.legislation.gov.au/details/c2013c00022
Federal Register of Legislation. (n.d.). Racial Discrimination Act 1975. Retrieved from https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2014C00014
Harper, C. (2015). Organizations: Structures, processes and outcomes. Routledge.
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LEGAL PROFESSION ACT 2008 – SECT 12. (2017). Austlii.edu.au. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/wa/consol_act/lpa2008179/s12.html
Mirvis, P. (2012). Employee engagement and CSR. California Management Review, 54(4), 93-117.
Morley, I., & Stephenson, G. (2015). The social psychology of bargaining(Vol. 17). Psychology Press.
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