Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations, Christian Porter, will review the practical operation of temporary changes to consultation periods for enterprise agreement (EA) variations in June, amid concerns from unions and the Federal Opposition.

As detailed in AREEA’s member alert, earlier this month the Australian Government temporarily amended the Fair Work Regulations to reduce the time required to consult with employees over proposed variations to an EA.

By reducing the minimum consultation period from the previous 7-days to 24 hours, throughout the COVID-19 crisis an employer can effectively now put a proposed EA variation to their workforce and hold a workplace vote on that proposal the next day.

The change will be repealed in September with a review set for June.

In a statement, the Attorney General and Minister for Industrial Relations, Christian Porter, said the changes would assist businesses to deal more swiftly with urgent issues that are arising in their workplaces as result of COVID-19.

“For example, businesses that have urgently needed to divide their workforce up into teams that rotate between working from home and in the office for social distancing reasons, haven’t been able to quickly implement those changes due to the mandatory access period,” Minister Porter said.

“In some cases, delays have been impractical and prevented employers from taking effective steps to improve the safety of their staff, or to ensure their businesses were able to function efficiently during these difficult and fast-changing times.”

The Australian Labor Party’s spokesman for industrial relations, Tony Burke, has since confirmed the Opposition will seek to partner with the Senate crossbench to overturn the temporary regulation change.

“Labor recognises the need to move quickly to vary awards during the coronavirus crisis in order to keep people in jobs when businesses are doing it tough. But this regulation tips the balance too far employers’ favour,” Mr Burke said.

However with the Australian Parliament not due to sit again until August, it is likely the benefit to employers from this measure will be realised prior to any official challenge.

“A step in the right direction” – AREEA

Responding to the government’s temporary measure, AREEA chief executive Steve Knott AM said it was ‘a step in the right direction’ for Australia’s industrial relations approach during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Seven days is an extraordinarily long time during this unprecedented dual health and economic crisis,” Steve Knott AM, AREEA Chief Executive, said.

“Over past weeks we have seen a huge level of employer-employee cooperation in implementing changes to workplace practices designed to protect the health and wellbeing of the workforce as well as keep operations and jobs viable.

“In the overwhelming majority of cases, both employers and employees know what needs to be done and are quickly agreeing on the necessary measures.”

While the changes to consultation timeframes is welcome, AREEA maintains that additional, more wide-ranging industrial relations changes may be required on a temporary basis should the impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on the Australian economy worsen.

“Earlier this month AREEA wrote to the Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations suggesting a three-to-six month temporary suspension of modern awards and enterprise agreements should be considered,” Mr Knott continues.

“This would allow businesses relatively unaffected to continue to operate under their existing industrial instruments, but provide immediate relief to any employer facing significant pressures as a result of COVID-19, not just those who can secure agreement with unions and their workforces on changes to enterprise agreements, or those operating under the awards the Fair Work Commission chose to vary.

“We encourage the government to consider further action as it monitors the effectiveness of its temporary measures to date, including the JobKeeper amendments and today’s regulation change.”

How we can help

AREEA’s team of expert workplace relations consultants are assisting members across the country with their COVID-19 response strategies.

Just some of the things we can help you with include:

• Enterprise agreements: strategic review, variations and/or potential terminations
• Changes to operational rosters to minimise labour movement
• Flexible work / work from home arrangements
• Directing employees to take accrued leave
• Changes to contracted / ordinary hours of work
• Temporary relocation of employees due to travel restrictions
• Allowances for hardship, additional duties.
• Understanding and accessing the JobKeeper wages subsidy scheme
• And much more

Call 1800 627 771 or email [email protected]