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Archive for the ‘Legal Obligations’ Category

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5 Things You Must Remember When Making An Award Flexibility Agreement

Given that phasing in provisions for modern awards are due to begin on 1 July 2010, I thought now would be a good time to remind you about award flexibility agreements.

Just to recap, making an award flexibility agreement allows you to agree with an employee to vary the way the terms in a modern award apply to them. For example, you can agree with an employee to pay them different rates to those set out in the award.

But remember, the variations you set out in an award flexibility agreement cannot disadvantage the employee.

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By Charles Power posted April 1st 2010

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How Will “Phasing-In” Work?

Dear Reader,

As if modern awards weren’t confusing enough, the phasing in of transitional award provisions is due to begin soon… on 1 July 2010 to be precise!

What are transitional award provisions?

Transitional provisions are included in most modern awards and essentially allow you to “phase-in” increases in wages, loadings and penalties over a period of 5 years.

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By Claire Berry posted March 30th 2010

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How To “Phase-In” Modern Award Provisions Correctly

Transitional provisions in modern awards mean that you do not have to start increasing base rates of pay to match modern award rates until 1 July 2010.

But how does this really work?

In reality, it is very complicated, especially because there will be a minimum wage increase across all awards on 1 July 2010.

Let me try and explain using an example:

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By Charles Power posted March 30th 2010

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When You Can Assume That An Employee Has Abandoned Their Employment

Dear Reader,

If one of your employees failed to rock up to work for more than 3 days – and didn’t contact you at all – would you know what to do?

If an employee is absent for a continuous period of more than 3 days without notifying you, you may be able to assume that they have in fact abandoned their employment.

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By Claire Berry posted March 25th 2010

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How to Officially Declare Abandonment of Employment

If you believe an employee has abandoned their employment, you should attempt to contact them or a relative or next of kin. When you do this, you should ask for an explanation and inform the employee that you will assume they have abandoned their employment if they do not respond within a specified timeframe.

If you cannot contact the employee directly, the next step you should take is to send them an abandonment of employment letter like the one below.

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By Charles Power posted March 25th 2010

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How To Find Your Way Through The Modern Award Maze: Part 2

Last week, I started to show you some common modern award provisions that may require you to change the way you currently operate.

This week, I’ll show you a few more…

Consultation

If you decide to introduce any changes in your business that might have significant effects on employees, you have to give advance notice of the change to affected employees and discuss how any adverse impact on them can be avoided. It is particularly important to follow this when you are implementing multiple redundancies, because if you don’t it will count against you in any unfair dismissal claim that results from the retrenchments.

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By Charles Power posted March 23rd 2010

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How to Find Your Way Through the Modern Award Maze

Modern awards contain many provisions that might require you to change your current practices.

Because not all awards are the same, you should check the terms of the award that applies to you.

Some common provisions that may require you to change your current practices are outlined below.

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By Charles Power posted March 18th 2010

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2 Questions to Help You Determine if a Worker is a Contractor or an Employee

Last week, I showed you a number of ways to tell the difference between an employee and an independent contractor.

So this week, I thought I would give you two questions you can ask yourself if you are still unsure about whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee.

They should help you to decide once and for all!

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By Charles Power posted March 16th 2010

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How to Make Sure You Don’t Discriminate Against Independent Contractors

Dear Reader,

Lately in the Bulletin, I’ve been reminding you about all the changes the Fair Work Act has introduced and how to make sure you comply with them.

You know the ones I mean – Modern Awards, the National Employment Standards, Enterprise Agreements, the changes to dismissal and redundancy laws, etc…

But today I thought I’d focus on a change you may not know about – your obligation not to make “sham” independent contractor arrangements.

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By Claire Berry posted March 15th 2010

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6 Things You Must Prove Before You Can Become a 457 Visa Sponsor

In order to be approved as a business sponsor of a 457 visa holder, you must be able to establish to the DIAC (Department of Immigration and Citizenship) that:

  1. Your business is actively and lawfully operating in Australia or lawfully operating overseas (i.e. you will need to provide proof of registration and business activities).
  2. You are complying with training benchmarks such as spending a certain amount of money on training (if your business is operating in Australia).
  3. Your business has a strong commitment to employing local labour and has non-discriminatory employment practices.

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By Charles Power posted March 9th 2010

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