Last week, I promised to show you the alternatives to making an enterprise agreement under the Fair Work Act.
And there a quite a few options available to you…
Today, I’ll start by showing you 3 ways you can make modern awards better suit the needs of your business when they are introduced on 1 January 2010.
1. Make an Individual Transitional Employment Agreement (ITEA)
In early March 2008, ITEAs replaced AWAs as a form of statutory agreement that can be made with individual employees until 31 December 2009. By making an ITEA, you can avoid a modern award applying to your employees altogether (although the ITEA cannot provide for a base rate of pay less than the relevant modern award rate!).
If you employed someone under an AWA as at 1 December 2007, then you can make an ITEA with new employees (or with existing employees on AWAs). If you do make an ITEA, it cannot have a nominal expiry date beyond 31 December 2009 but it will continue to apply after this date unless it is terminated or replaced. The ITEA will operate subject to the National Employment Standards (NES).
No Comments