flexible work practices

There is a fair bit being said and written about flexible work practices.

Prior to the beginning of last year, there was a lot of lip service paid to this by many employers who said they wanted to do provide it(or said they were providing it), but in reality very few were.

Then the GFC hit and many employers took what was a sensible road and instead of laying off staff completely, reduced their hours.Some of these hours have been increased and some employees were content to keep the same or similar hours for flexibility reasons.Many employers that had not considered these issues are now embracing the concept of flexible working practices

At the same time, the Fair Work laws were passed which made it compulsory to consider flexible working arangement under certain circumstances.

Employers now have an obligation in this regard.Whilst they can refuse any application by an employee of reasonable business grounds, they need to be careful that the grounds for refusal are not unlawful.

Just because the decision cannot be overturned or appealed, does not mean that in some circumstances, employees may not have other legal avenues to pursue.

I true minefield for employers is coming, I suspect.

UnFair Dismissal Claims Soar

The AFR today has published figures stating that 5208 unfair dismissal claims have been lodged in the first 6 months of the new legislation.Based on last years figures, this is a significant increase.

This news is not all surprising.Prior to 30 June last year, employers in businesses that employed up to 100 people were immune for such claims.

What it shows is that there a lot of businesses that are unaware of their obligations under the new laws.As I have said many times in this space, these claims CAN be validly defended, provided that there are correct systems in place for managing "problem employees", and those systems are followed.

Concerns have been expressed in Parliment that the Ombudsman has been suggesting employers pay "go away" money to employees to get rid of these claims.Whether or not these claims are true, it should not even be an option if the employer follows a very easy process.

Think about it.If you spend a bit of time now getting it right, and you follow the process, you will not have to pay "go away" money, or even spend money on legal fees to defend the claims.The claims will not be brought in the first place .

back pay from non-compliance-Fair Work Ombudsman strikes again

This is becoming a major issue for employers.

A case has just concluded in Victoria where the Ombudsman had prosecuted a retail employer for a failure to pay proper wages to its employees.The employer owed various employees over $20,000.

This continues a trend of the Fair Work Ombudsman auditing many employers over the past 12 months to investigate these issues.There are numerous examples of employers(whether knowinging or not) have failed to pay proper wages to its employees.

The important message here is that if an employer has not been paying accurate wages and it is audited, it may face legal proceedings from FWA.In most cases, in my experience, employers simply do not know that they are not complying, given the complexity of the awards and other legislation.

Review you wages rates and ensure that you are compliant.It will cost you a lot less to fix things up before the Ombudsman comes knocking on your door.

teething problems with new awards

As a Father of young children, I know all about the problems encountered with teething....well, some of the new modern awards seem to be going through some similar problems.

Last week, Fair Work Australia made a decision which will affect many retailers who are operating under the modern awards.Employers must now offer employees shifts of a minimum of 3 hours.At first glance , one can see the reasoning for the decision;being that employee would disadvantaged if their shift was only 1-2 hours, particularly if the travel involved in getting to work is lengthy.

However, the AFR today has a story which shows the negative aspect for employees.A school student bhas had his shifts cancelled because they were only 1.5 hours long, and after this decision, the employer must pay him for at least 3 hours.The circumstances here are that the student would go to work in the hardwear store immediately after school, starting at 4pm.The shop is only open until 5.30 pm, thus the short shift.You can see my employees, in this situation, may feel hard done by the new legistlation and awards and it will be interesting to see whether the Government picks up on this issue.

A message for all employers, not only in retail.Carefully look at that new award that governs your workplace as there may be provisions in those awards that are different and increase your obligations to your employees.