Rudd Government announces further details of its workplace reform proposals

Summary

• Transitional Bill to be introduced in first parliamentary sitting week in February 2008
• Transitional Bill changes will commence once the laws pass through parliament. Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) will therefore cease to be available once the Bill is passed (anticipated to be at least April 2008)
• New ‘No Disadvantage test’ (NDT) for all new workplace agreements to be brought forward 
• Requirement to provide a ‘Workplace Relations Fact Sheet’ (Fact Sheet) to employees to be abolished
• Draft National Employment Standards to be released for public comment and consultation, and as a guide for AIRC’s award simplification, and
• Further consultation will precede substantive changes which will commence in 2010.

The Rudd Government yesterday announced further details of its policy implementation agenda for its workplace relations reforms.

The additional information announced by the ALP this week represents some small changes to its legislative timetable, but is mostly consistent with its previously-announced policy proposals. The major departure from the ALP’s pre-election policy relates to the earlier than anticipated introduction of a new NDT for all workplace agreements.

The key details of the announcement are as follows.

The Transitional Bill to give effect to the first stage of the ALP’s reforms will be introduced into parliament in the first sitting week of 2008, which is likely to be in early February.

As previously foreshadowed by the ALP, this legislation will make the following changes to the existing regime:

• no new AWAs may be entered into, and
  
• Interim Transitional Employment Agreements (ITEAs) will be introduced as a temporary replacement for AWAs, but will not be able to run beyond 31 December 2009.

Yesterday’s announcement also spells out new details of what the Transitional Bill will contain:

• a new NDT for all new workplace agreements, to be based on the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard and the relevant award. In the case of ITEAs, the NDT will consist of this benchmark plus additional conditions contained in any collective agreements that would otherwise apply
  
• legislative amendments to enable the AIRC to undertake the process of modernising industrial awards. This is likely to include two components—award simplification, to make awards consistent with the ALP’s 10 new National Employment Standards and 10 allowable award matters, and award rationalisation, to reduce the number of existing awards, and
  
• the abolition of the requirement for employers to provide employees with the Fact Sheet. Under the current system, employers were required to provide existing employees with a copy of the Fact Sheet by 20 October 2007. In addition, new employees must be given the Fact Sheet within seven days of starting work.

The government will also release an exposure draft of legislative amendments to give effect to its 10 National Employment Standards, although this will not constitute part of the Transitional Bill. Instead, these amendments appear likely to be packaged with the government’s more substantial reform legislation, which will be introduced in late 2008 or 2009, and take effect from 1 January 2010.

The government will invite public comments on the exposure draft, which must be submitted by April 2008, with a view to the detail of the 10 National Employment Standards being finalised by June 2008.

Implications for employers

• The government has indicated that it will be consulting with stakeholders between now and the introduction of the Transitional Bill, which may mean that additional details are announced prior to the Bill being introduced next February. 
  
• In announcing the Cabinet’s endorsement of the changes yesterday, the Prime Minister stated that the changes would apply ’once the laws are through the Parliament’. This suggests that the government will not be seeking to backdate either the cut-off date for AWAs or the commencement of the new NDT to the date of introduction of the Bill. This is an important aspect of the government’s announcement, as there is a possibility of quite a significant delay in the passage of the Bill, not least because the ALP does not control the Senate majority.
  
• Some commentators are predicting the Bill may not pass through parliament until at least April 2008. This means that new AWAs would continue to remain available in their current form until then.

We will keep clients updated in relation to any new developments during this time.

Clients with any queries should contact one of the Employee Relations partners.

This article was written by Tony Wood, Partner, Karli Evans and Ben Davies, Solicitors, of the Melbourne Employee Relations group.