Breaking HR News from across Australia and the world This edition: PERKS CAN AID BOTTOM LINE CORPORATE CULTURE DEFINES A COMPANY AND ITS FUTURE THE MYTH OF THE DISPOSABLE WORKER ACCOMMODATING AGE HEWITT’S 2005 BEST EMPLOYERS SURVEY SHOWS EMPLOYEES SUPPORT COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS EMPLOYEES CHANGE JOBS FREQUENTLY TO BE MORE ATTRACTIVE MOTIVATING THE MIDDLE THE NEW IT LAWS – GENERAL OVERVIEW PERKS CAN AID BOTTOM LINE Investor's Business Daily (10/17/05), Schmeiser, Lisa Some businesses like Costco and Starbucks believe that providing higher-than-average employee benefits help increase employee retention. Starbucks, for instance, offers educational reimbursement benefits for some workers. Higher retention, in turn, helps reduce costs related to employee turnover and retraining. "Over time, if you have lower employee turnover, there are efficiencies afforded in operations," says Costco CFO Richard Galanti. Some analysts agree with his idea that holding on to skilled and valued employees by offering superior benefits is beneficial to companies' long-term performance. "It's very hard to get good service or high productivity from someone who hasn't been with the organization long enough to know what to do or how to do it," asserts Stanford University Graduate School of Business professor Jeffrey Pfeffer. Galanti adds that having an experienced workforce produces fewer mistakes and safety problems, and workers are more inclined to act positively with customers. Costco also enjoys a low employee theft rate, which is often calculated by using the inventory shrinkage rate. However, some Wall Street analysts like Deutsche Bank's Bill Dreher still remain unconvinced that offering good employee benefits helps firms. CORPORATE CULTURE DEFINES A COMPANY AND ITS FUTURE Mid-American Journal of Business (10/01/2005) Vol. 20, P. 7; Farmer, Richard T. Honesty and integrity are the foundation of the culture of opportunity, respect, leadership, and excellence at Cintas in Cincinnati, Ohio, according to Richard T. Farmer, chairman and founder of the company. Sarbanes-Oxley was enacted in the wake of billion dollar losses for investors, but corporate greed will continue L10 17 CASTLEREAGH STREET SYDNEY NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA T: +61 2 9299 3030 F: +61 2 9299 6030 EMAIL@OHR.COM.AU WWW.HUMANRESOURCES.COM.AU OHR PTY LTD ABN 75 081 652 584 2 because honesty and integrity cannot be legislated. However, the traits can be made part of corporate culture by looking for them in new hires, breeding them in employees, and rewarding workers who display them. The Cintas culture starts with its primary objective, which is to maximize the long-term value of the company for shareholders and working partners and surpass the expectations of customers, which leads to career and growth opportunities. The culture of respect is exemplified in allowing partners to be involved in decision-making, accepting input from workers, acknowledging their contributions to the growth of the company, recognizing no one is above the rules, and establishing a direct channel for partners to share their ethical concerns. The principal objective of Cintas encourages strong and ethical leadership, and requires that values be defined and communicated as standards and systems change. The culture of excellence is based on exceeding the expectations of customers and driving the long-term value of the company. THE MYTH OF THE DISPOSABLE WORKER Business 2.0 (10/05) Vol. 6, P. 78; Pfeffer, Jeffrey; Dee II, Thomas D. Grading workers and categorizing them into preset performance levels only forces firms to lose good workers, according to some human resources professionals. The latest trend in large corporations to use these systems makes it seem as though firing workers is an achievement, but most experts warn that high turnover rates can only lead to additional operational and hiring costs in the long run. New workers will have to be trained and old workers given severance pay and other benefits, and those workers that have been ousted are back in the talent pool. Firms in the same industry with high turnover rates often hire one another's rejects since many are seeking candidates with the same skills in the same talent pool , which is rarely replenished with top-notch workers, since those firms with top-notch workers tend to do everything they can to retain those workers. Human resource experts suggest that employers focus on finding the right workers, training them well, and allowing them to contribute to the goals of the firm. Southwest Airlines, for instance, discusses hypothetical scenarios with its potential candidates to determine which ones are the best in terms of retention and performance. Other employers will use statistical evidence based on a series of interview questions to determine which candidates are best. ACCOMMODATING AGE October 3, 2005- Tom Starner The folks at Greenville (S.C.) Hospital System didn’t start out looking for reasons why a surprising number of their employees, primarily nurses and other caregivers, voiced a desire to retire early. When a chronic health-care worker shortage reared its head in 2003, the center undertook an extensive workforce-planning study, mainly by analyzing employee age by profession. Among the results, it found the average GHS nurse was 37 years old (compared to 41 nationally), but it was the story behind the seemingly youthful average that proved most intriguing, according to Doug Dorman, GHS’ vice president of HR. Most tellingly, the GHS study reported that despite that relatively young average age, GHS had a surprisingly disproportionate number of employees on the extremes, so the workforce was mostly very young employees or employees in their 50s, 60s and even 70s. In short, the average didn’t reflect the true age scenario. Also, through exit interviews done both via mail and face-to-face, a clear majority of GHS employees choosing early retirement cited the “physical toll of their jobs” as the number one reason to leave early. The second largest employer in Greenville County, with more than 7,600 employees and 1,000 physicians, GHS knew it had to do something to keep those valuable caregiver employees from leaving early -— especially with its high number of caregivers in the 50-, 60- and 70-year-old age range and a probable health-care worker shortage looming. It attacked the problem head-on with a complete structural overhaul, including renovation and new construction as part of a larger capital project. L10 17 CASTLEREAGH STREET SYDNEY NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA T: +61 2 9299 3030 F: +61 2 9299 6030 EMAIL@OHR.COM.AU WWW.HUMANRESOURCES.COM.AU OHR PTY LTD ABN 75 081 652 584 3 Currently, GHS is in the process of reconstructing four new-patient wings across five floors on its main campus. Construction spans 20 nursing units and approximately 250,000 square feet. A strategic component of this renovation—as well as past construction projects—involves incorporating innovative design to ease physical stress on caregivers. The modifications go beyond physical renovation, however. For example, when it comes to lifting, GHS is partnering with Diligent, a company that specializes in clinically supported injury-prevention programs. “We’re reducing manual transfer and repositioning tasks by training employees to use new lifting equipment,” Dorman says. The changes, he adds, are causing a ripple effect felt throughout the organization, as all employees come to understand and support them. “We’re not separating anyone out, and we’re making progress as rapidly as we can,” he says. Based on national statistics and a recent workers’ compensation study in Ohio, the GHS strategy will do more than boost the hoped-for employee retention. It should also result in lowering workers’ compensation and disability coverage costs among a slice of the population that has a disproportionately higher recovery rate from injuries than the rest of the American workforce. As the U.S. population grows older due to longer life expectancies, decades of lower birth rates and the bulk of baby boomers (75 million Americans whose ages are between 40 and 60) entering their senior years, it’s only natural that the American workforce will grow older accordingly. Employers will need to adjust not only to retain those workers, but also to keep them healthy on the job. “Age is not a disability. Aging is not a disease,” says Ken Mitchell, vice president of Corporate Return to Work Development at UnumProvident Corp., the Chattanooga, Tenn., insurer. “The worker over the age of 40 will become the single largest worker group in the U.S. workforce within the next five years. Employers need to understand the realities and opportunities of this group. Protecting their health and productivity will be a critical corporate investment.” UnumProvident’s study, Health & Productivity in the Aging American Work Force: Realities and Opportunities, reveals: • Although workers age 40 and older experience a lower incidence of work injuries, short-term disability and unscheduled absences than younger workers, the average amount of time they will miss due to an injury or illness is greater by nearly a third. • Workers older than age 40 account for 50 percent of all short-term disability claims and up to 75 percent of long-term disability claims. • Primary reasons for long-term work disruptions for this age group include impairments of the musculoskeletal and circulatory systems, as well as mental and cancer disorders. • The additional presence of risk factors such as smoking, lack of exercise and obesity can result in health-care costs for this population that are nearly 300 percent higher than the younger workforce. “Employees are living longer and have more active lives that require them to work well into their 60s, creating a myriad of concerns including health-related issues,” Mitchell says. “The good news here is that there are tried and proven effective steps that management can take to lessen this occurrence and benefit not only aging employees, but all employees.” HEWITT’S 2005 BEST EMPLOYERS Smaller organisations are doing a better job than larger ones when it comes to the engagement of staff, according to the results of this year’s Hewitt Associates, Australian Graduate School of Management and AFR Boss Best Employer Awards. L10 17 CASTLEREAGH STREET SYDNEY NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA T: +61 2 9299 3030 F: +61 2 9299 6030 EMAIL@OHR.COM.AU WWW.HUMANRESOURCES.COM.AU OHR PTY LTD ABN 75 081 652 584 4 In an article in AFR Boss, which exclusively details the winners of this year’s awards, author Catherine Fox notes that all award winners are small to medium sized business, many having less than 1000 employees, most fewer than 500. The article, ‘Now here’s where size really matters’, provides a valuable insight into just what these smaller organisations are doing with regard to leadership, HR practices and perhaps most importantly, the direct relationship between line managers and staff. And these Best Employers are apparently not only doing it better than others, but they are doing it cheaper as well. Human Resources Magazine reveals that for every dollar the Best Employers spend on HR, others are spending $1.50. By focusing on the things that matter the most, HR dollars are being more effectively spent. The Hewitt study examines over 300 Australian and New Zealand businesses each year, with the aim of identifying organisations whose engagement of employees and alignment of HR with business strategies result in strong business performance. Hewitt Associates also has publicly available a list of factors by which employee engagement can be measured. Highly respected, many businesses have gone a step further in using Hewitt to actively assist them to examine their levels of employee engagement. Speaking at the Public Sector Human Resources Convention in Hobart recently, Mike Whittle, HR Manager of Aurora Energy said that this process had enabled Aurora to identify the specific areas that they were falling short in employee engagement – recognition, career opportunities and honouring employment promises. By isolating such specifics, organisations can tailor strategies and budgets to rectify shortcomings. Catherine Fox’s article,’ Now here’s where size really matters’, lists the winners of the 2005 Best Employers Awards and provides details of the various practices used by organisations to actively engage staff. SURVEY SHOWS WORKERS SUPPORT COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS HR MANAGER 29 OCTOBER 2005 A recent survey has revealed that a clear majority of Australian workers would support laws which compel employers to collectively bargain with their employees if that is what the majority of the workers want. The CPSU reports that 86% of the 614 employees in marginal electorates surveyed in August said they would support such use of collective agreements. 62% responded that they believed that they would be worse off under individual contracts, including 30% who felt that they would be “a lot worse off”. Most respondents believed that under individual contracts being promoted by the government, their existing working conditions would be cut. More than half felt that there would be a negative impact on a number of factors including penalty rates, annual leave loading, paid overtime and their ability to control working hours. Clearly the ACTU’s television advertising campaign has had an impact on public awareness of the proposed changes. 77% of respondents to the August survey said that they had heard “a lot” or “something” about proposed changes, compared with 64% in a May poll who reported that they had heard “not much” or “hardly anything L10 17 CASTLEREAGH STREET SYDNEY NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA T: +61 2 9299 3030 F: +61 2 9299 6030 EMAIL@OHR.COM.AU WWW.HUMANRESOURCES.COM.AU OHR PTY LTD ABN 75 081 652 584 5 WORKERS CHANGE JOBS FREQUENTLY TO BE MORE ATTRACTIVE HR MANAGER 29 OCTOBER 2005 With the concept of a “job for life” relegated to history for now, research has revealed that workers believe that frequent career changes actually make them more attractive to employers. Research by Talent2 has found that frequent career changes have become commonplace with 42% of those surveyed having between 6 – 10 jobs during their career lifetimes and 12% admitting to having had between 11 – 15. The survey revealed that many workers believe that frequent “job hopping” makes them more marketable to employers as well as better at adapting to new work environments. But 90% of those surveyed said that they were not, in fact, “job hopping” but rather they were looking to continually improve their career prospects. For employers seeking to minimize staff turnover the message is that providing opportunities for staff development, diversification of roles and internal promotion strategies are critical in any retention program. MOTIVATING THE MIDDLE CFO (10/05); Stuart, Alix Nyberg It is important for organisations to focus on and reward their high-performing employees, but this often comes at the expense of those whose performance is more toward the middle, even though motivating these performers is important to the overall organization as well. Benign neglect of the middle performers can lead to such problems as excessive turnover, reputational damage, or poor performance, and while it remains important to motivate the star performers with extra pay and other incentives, there are still other ways of motivating the middle. Rather than simply involving more money, this motivation strategy should combine honest communication, clear metrics, and reasonable career mobility. Organizations such as Yahoo and Nortel Networks have discovered the importance of message management, with Yahoo avoiding the common "high-potential" label--so as not to demoralize the rest of the workforce by implying they are "low-potential"--while Nortel has moved from a two-tier system of "critical" and "noncritical" employees to a broader four-tier system. Meanwhile, establishing clear metrics means creating precise definitions of goals and performance levels so that the incentive system remains objective. Forrester Research, for example, moved to align pay with performance ratings eight years ago and found that employees were seeking more clarity about the performance ratings, so now each employee has a quarterly meeting with managers to review past performance against standard definitions. Finally, BellSouth is an example of a company that is starting to place more emphasis on career development for the middle performers. One thing the company has been doing is compiling all available career-development tools--including a directory of job descriptions and detailed explanations about the difference between meeting and exceeding expectations in areas such as team-building and business knowledge--and placing this information on an internal Web site. THE NEW IR LAWS – EMPLOYERS WILL GET WHAT THEY WANT, EVENTUALLY WorkplaceInfo 10th October 2005 Employers will be able to set up the workplace conditions they want under the Federal Governments new IR legislation – they just may have to move a little slower than they might want to. The Government’s explanatory notes on how the new legislation will work make it clear that penalty rates, overtime and inflexible hours can all be got rid of – over time. L10 17 CASTLEREAGH STREET SYDNEY NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA T: +61 2 9299 3030 F: +61 2 9299 6030 EMAIL@OHR.COM.AU WWW.HUMANRESOURCES.COM.AU OHR PTY LTD ABN 75 081 652 584 6 Unions will also find it almost impossible to take meaningful industrial action because if a significant strike is working, the Workplace Relations Minister will be able to declare it illegal under new essential services powers because it is ‘damaging the economy’. In the document, ‘WorkChoices – A New Workplace Relations System’ the Government repeatedly declares that certain employment conditions will be ‘protected’, only to reveal that they can in fact be bargained away. ‘Protected’ award conditions Examples of employment conditions that will be ‘protected’, that can also be bargained away are: Public holidays; Rest breaks (including meal breaks); Incentive-based payments and bonuses; Annual leave loadings; Allowances; Penalty rates; and Shift/overtime loadings. However it then goes on to say that these award conditions ‘can be the subject of bargaining by the employee/s and employer’. In fact, a collective agreement or AWA under WorkChoices ‘need simply set out how the new agreement will either change or remove these matters in that agreement’. The Government will retain a system of federal awards, but is setting up an Award Review Taskforce to simplify them and reduce their number. It has promised this will not be an exercise in ‘cutting award classification wages or conditions’. 'Protected' means? However when new workplace agreements are negotiated, these conditions are only ‘protected’ if they are not specifically referred to in the agreement. Any specific provision in the agreement will modify (or remove) them according to the terms of the agreement. The AIRC The AIRC is to be significantly weakened. It will focus on its key responsibility – dispute resolution but only where those functions are expressly conferred on it by the parties. The AIRC will retain its power to resolve matters arising during the negotiation of an agreement. Voluntary dispute resolution The AIRC will no longer exercise compulsory powers of conciliation and arbitration, but will provide voluntary dispute resolution services with limited exceptions (such as terminating a bargaining period where industrial action is threatening life or causing damage to the economy). Unfair dismissals There are now clearer rules for the operation of the unfair dismissal laws. The cut off number of 100 employees is based on a head count (two part-time employees cannot be counted as one permanent) and casual workers employed for a total of 12 months or more are also included. National IR system - coverage Under the new national IR system WorkChoices will cover: L10 17 CASTLEREAGH STREET SYDNEY NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA T: +61 2 9299 3030 F: +61 2 9299 6030 EMAIL@OHR.COM.AU WWW.HUMANRESOURCES.COM.AU OHR PTY LTD ABN 75 081 652 584 7 Trading, financial and foreign corporations (constitutional corporations); Employers and employees in territories (the ACT and NT) and Christmas and Cocos Islands; The Commonwealth, including its authorities; Waterside, maritime and flight crew employers; and All employers and employees in Victoria. This is estimated to cover about 85% of employees. People employed by employers not covered by the above categories remain in the state system ‘until ... State Governments refer their workplace relations powers to the Australian Government’. Non-incorporated employers have five years to decide what to do. These options will depend, in part, on the positions taken by State governments. Hours of work Maximum ordinary hours of work will be set at 38 hours a week, but can be averaged over a period of up to 12 months (In NSW award workers can currently have their hours averaged over 12 weeks, and seasonal workers over 52 weeks). As far as overtime is concerned ‘additional payment for hours worked in excess of 38 hours will be a matter for awards and agreements’. In other words, workers will have to bargain for overtime rates – a difficult job if hours can be averaged over 12 months. Penalty rates Penalty rates, as stated above, will remain part of awards and agreements but can also be removed through bargaining an AWA or individual agreement. Of course, if an AWA is a condition of employment then employee’s bargaining powers are diminished. In a Government example in the document, an employer offers her employees an hourly rate which ‘absorbs’ penalty rates. The new Fair Pay and Conditions Standard will provide that employees can be required to work reasonable additional hours. Cashing out annual leave Employees will be able to cash out two weeks of their annual leave, but it must be at their written request. Employers will be able to refuse such a request. Personal/carers leave Personal/carer leave (including sick leave) will be 10 days paid leave a year. It will be cumulative, but only up to 10 days a year can be used as carers leave. Parental leave Employees will be entitled to up to 52 weeks parental leave after 12 months’ continuous service. It also applies to casual workers with 12 months’ service with a ‘reasonable expectation of ongoing employment’. Agreement making The current need to have agreements certified is to be abolished. In future a statutory declaration that the agreement was negotiated in compliance with the law will be all that is necessary. All agreements will commence on lodgment. Employers and employees can ask the OEA to check whether the agreement does not contain prohibited content. Employers will be required to give their employees at least seven days to consider new agreements. However this period can be waived if all employees agree in writing. L10 17 CASTLEREAGH STREET SYDNEY NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA T: +61 2 9299 3030 F: +61 2 9299 6030 EMAIL@OHR.COM.AU WWW.HUMANRESOURCES.COM.AU OHR PTY LTD ABN 75 081 652 584 8 Types of agreement There will be six types of agreements: 1. 2. 3. 4. Employee collective agreements (non union) Union collective agreements AWAs Union greenfields agreements – where a union negotiates wages and conditions for future employees they would expect to cover. 5. Employer greenfields agreements – where the employer makes the agreement without union involvement. It is not clear with whom the employer could be making an agreement, as there are no employees yet. Both kinds of greenfields agreements automatically expire after 12 months, after which protected industrial action can begin in support of a new agreement. Mining and energy employers are understood to be particularly unhappy about this, as they wanted the greenfields agreement to be in operation for the life of a construction project. However this would go against the Government’s philosophy of workplace agreements negotiated between employers and employees. 6. Multiple business agreements – which are mainly aimed at franchises and would provide the same pay and conditions for a number of businesses. These must be shown not to be against the public interest. Agreement content Agreements must include wage rates that are not less than those set by the Fair Pay Commission. The casual loading of 20% remains for time being (subject to future consideration of the Commission). Agreements can be for a maximum of five years. Prohibited content Clauses that cannot be included in agreements are those: Prohibiting AWAs; Restricting the use of independent contractors or on-hire arrangements; Allowing for industrial action during the term of an agreement That provide for trade union training leave, bargaining fees to trade unions or paid union meetings; Providing that any future agreement must be a union collective agreement; Mandating union involvement in dispute resolution; Providing a remedy for unfair dismissal; Other matters proscribed by regulation/legislation Also prohibited are agreements which impose wage rates or conditions on contractors or labour hire companies working on site. This is expected to have major ramifications in the construction industry where such action is commonplace. The new IR laws will make prohibited content unenforceable, but its inclusion will not render the agreement invalid. As well employers, unions and employees will not be able to take protected industrial action over agreements that include prohibited content. Award provisions in excess of standard Award provisions which are more generous than the Fair Pay and Conditions Standards – such as annual leave will continue to apply. The Government document says Victorian nurses who are entitled to six months long service leave after 15 years service will continue with this condition as long as they are ‘covered by the award’. Presumably these matters are also up for negotiation if employees move to agreements in the future. L10 17 CASTLEREAGH STREET SYDNEY NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA T: +61 2 9299 3030 F: +61 2 9299 6030 EMAIL@OHR.COM.AU WWW.HUMANRESOURCES.COM.AU OHR PTY LTD ABN 75 081 652 584 9 Transitional arrangements An agreement in place at the commencement of WorkChoices will continue past its expiry date until terminated or replaced. However the old agreement will not be able to be varied or extended. Parties can make new agreements before the expiry of the old one. Relationship between agreements AWAs will exclude both collective agreements and awards. Collective agreements will exclude awards, but will not be able to exclude AWAs. Awards will be excluded by both AWAs and collective agreements. Agreement dispute resolution Employers and employees will be encouraged to resolve disputes between themselves. However the legislation will include a model dispute resolution process which will set out a staged process. If the matter is unresolved, the parties can move to an alternative dispute resolution process, which can be a private provider or the AIRC. This process will not prevent the parties taking court action if they believe laws, awards or agreements are being breached. Under the new laws the AIRC will be compelled to hear and determine an application for an order to prevent or stop unprotected industrial action within 48 hours. In relation to the definition of industrial action, the WR Act will be amended to: Clarify that acts by employers, other than lockouts, are not industrial action (e.g. redundancies or termination of employment); Clarify that absences from work for non-industrially motivated purposes, (e.g. genuine illness, is not industrial action); and Require employees to show that they genuinely held a reasonable concern about an imminent risk to their health or safety in order to rely on that exemption from the definition of industrial action. It will no longer be necessary to get a certificate from the AIRC before having access to common law tort remedies for unprotected action. Secret ballots The WR Act will be amended to require secret ballots before protected industrial action can be taken. Employees or the union or unions will apply to the AIRC for a secret ballot order. An application for a secret ballot will only be able to be made: After the expiry of the existing agreement; If a bargaining period has been notified to the AIRC; and If the proposed industrial action is not for the purposes of supporting or advancing claims to include prohibited content in the proposed agreement. The AIRC will only be able to make such an order if the ‘employees or union are genuinely trying to reach an agreement with the employer and if not pattern bargaining is taking place’. To approve the industrial action at least 50% of the eligible employees will need to vote and, of them, more than 50% will need to vote in favour. In another blow to unions, the Federal Government will cover only 80% of the cost of the ballot, with the rest paid by the union or the group of employees. It is expected that secret ballots could take weeks to organise, further restricting union activity Suspending and terminating a bargaining period Three new grounds will be added, including harm to ‘third parties’: L10 17 CASTLEREAGH STREET SYDNEY NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA T: +61 2 9299 3030 F: +61 2 9299 6030 EMAIL@OHR.COM.AU WWW.HUMANRESOURCES.COM.AU OHR PTY LTD ABN 75 081 652 584 10 Suspension or termination if “pattern bargaining” is taking place; A cooling-off suspension where this would assist the parties to resolve the matters at issue; and A suspension where third parties are threatened with significant harm from industrial action. The length of suspension where third parties have sought it is limited to three months. Essential services The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations will have the power to prohibit or end protected industrial action where it ‘threatens life, personal safety, health or welfare of the population or is likely to cause significant damage to the economy’. Damaging action in State systems Industrial action in State systems that is having an adverse effect on a constitutional corporation can also be dealt with by way of civil penalties and injunctions, with fines of up to $33,000. These penalties are being reviewed. Transmission of business Where a business or part of a business transmits to a new employer, if no employee accepts employment with the new employer, then the awards or agreements will not transfer to the new employer. Where an employee does accept employment with the new employer, the awards, collective agreements and AWAs that cover the employees of the transferring business will transmit to the new employer. The transmitted awards, collective agreements and AWAs will only apply to the transferred employees at the new business. Collective agreements and AWAs transmitted to the new employer, as well as award provisions will have a maximum period of application of 12 months. After that period, the employees will be covered by whichever of the instruments is capable of applying to them (e.g. the employer’s existing collective agreement or relevant award) or, if there is no such instrument, the Fair Pay and Conditions Standard. No ticket, no start Claims of ‘no ticket, no start’ will be prohibited as ‘misleading’ because they claim that a person cannot be employed if he/she is not a union member. Right of entry Much of what employers have been demanding over union officials ‘right of entry’ onto employer’s premises have been granted. The new provisions will: Tighten the requirements for the granting of an entry permit, including introducing a ‘fit and proper person’ test; Cover the field using the corporations and territories powers so that for businesses in the new system, right of entry can only be exercised under the new legislation; Make it clear there is no right of entry for discussion purposes where all employees are on AWAs; Only allow entry to investigate a breach of an AWA if the employee party to the AWA provides written consent; Require a union official to provide particulars of a breach that he or she is proposing to enter to investigate to the employer; Confirm a union official can only access the records of union members when investigating a breach, unless an order is made by the AIRC that non-member records can be inspected; and L10 17 CASTLEREAGH STREET SYDNEY NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA T: +61 2 9299 3030 F: +61 2 9299 6030 EMAIL@OHR.COM.AU WWW.HUMANRESOURCES.COM.AU OHR PTY LTD ABN 75 081 652 584 11 Require a union official to comply with a reasonable request by an employer that the meeting or interview should be conducted in a particular room or areas of the premises and that a specified route should be taken to that venue. Revocation and suspension The grounds on which a right of entry permit may be revoked will also be expanded. The revocation or suspension of a permit will be mandatory in cases where the permit holder has: Been found by the AIRC to have breached the prohibition on making misrepresentations about his or her powers under their right of entry permit; Had their right of entry under a state law cancelled, suspended or has been disqualified from exercising or applying for right of entry under a state law; Been ordered to pay a penalty in respect of a contravention of the right of entry provisions; and When exercising a right of entry under an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) law engaged in conduct that was not authorised by that law. L10 17 CASTLEREAGH STREET SYDNEY NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA T: +61 2 9299 3030 F: +61 2 9299 6030 EMAIL@OHR.COM.AU WWW.HUMANRESOURCES.COM.AU OHR PTY LTD ABN 75 081 652 584 12 THOUGHT FOR THE DAY IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER No person should rely on the contents of this publication without first obtaining advice from a qualified professional person. This publication is provided on the terms and understanding that (1) the editor & publisher are not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information in this publication, nor for any error in or omission from this publication; and (2) the editor and publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, professional or other advice or services. The publisher and editor, expressly disclaim all and any liability and responsibility to any person, in respect of anything, and of the consequences of anything, done or omitted to be done by any such person in reliance, whether wholly or partially, upon the whole or any part of the contents of this publication. L10 17 CASTLEREAGH STREET SYDNEY NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA T: +61 2 9299 3030 F: +61 2 9299 6030 EMAIL@OHR.COM.AU WWW.HUMANRESOURCES.COM.AU OHR PTY LTD ABN 75 081 652 584