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Timely reminder on notices of representational rights
A Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission has overturned the approval of Harbour City Maritime Agreement 2014 as the notice of representational rights (the NERR) provided to employees by Harbour City Ferries Pty Ltd (the Employer) departed from the strict wording and content requirements set out in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the Act). The Act requires employers, within 14 days of commencing bargaining for an enterprise agreement, to take all reasonable steps to provide employees who will be covered by a proposed enterprise agreement with a NERR. The Act requires the NERR to: contain the content prescribed by the regulations; not contain any other content; be in the form prescribed by the regulations; and provide details regarding the appointment of a bargaining representative. The regulations provide a pro-forma version of the NERR which contain certain fields which to be populated by the employer. In this matter,...
7 July 2015Unfair dismissal threshold increases from 1 July 2015
Introduction New rates, thresholds and other changes in the employment arena commence from 1 July 2015. The following article briefly summarises the main amendments that employers should be aware of. Unfair dismissal threshold (high income threshold) The high income threshold will increase from the current $133,300 to $136,700 from 1 July 2015. This means employees whose annual rate of earnings is $136,700 (which excludes statutory superannuation) or more and who are not covered by an award or enterprise agreement, are unable to pursue an unfair dismissal application. National minimum wage From 1 July 2015, the national minimum wage will increase to $656.90 per week or $17.29 per hour (calculated on the basis of a 38 hour week for a full time employee). This represents a 2.5% increase. The increase applies...
29 June 2015Terminating expired enterprise agreements is no longer taboo!
A recent Fair Work Commission (the Commission) Full Bench decision has challenged the principles previously established by the Commission for terminating enterprise agreements. Background Aurizon Operations Limited, Aurizon Network Pty Ltd and Australian Eastern Railroad Pty Ltd (collectively, Aurizon), made separate applications to terminate several expired enterprise agreements (the Expired Agreements). Aurizon argued the Expired Agreements should be terminated due to the "market in which it operates, changes that have occurred consequent upon its privatisation, the history of the enterprise agreements, the changes to the agreements sought by the parties during bargaining, and in particular the changes sought by Aurizon, the history of negotiations for new agreements, the importance of particular provisions of the agreements to employees, the operation of particular provisions in the workplace context and t...
29 May 2015