Industrial Relations Reforms - The Workplace Relations Bill

The area of workplace relations and employment law is set to experience some important changes if the Rudd government’s Workplace Relations Bill becomes law as anticipated from 1 July 2009. Much will depend on the final “shape” of the new legislation, but it is presently anticipated some of the changes will include the following:

• At present, there is no right to claim unfair dismissal under Federal law if the employer has 100 or more employees. The Bill proposes to restore unfair dismissal rights to all employees who are subject to Federal law.
• If the employer has 15 or less employees, the Bill proposes that an unfair dismissal claim can be made if the dismissed worker had been employed for 12 months or more. If the employer has more than 15 employees, the relevant period will only be 6 months.
• Under the present law, even employers with more than 100 workers could generally oppose unfair dismissal claims on the basis that the dismissal was for “genuine operational reasons”. The new law is expected to still include a “genuine operational reasons” defence; but the Bill proposes that the criteria will change. This may become particularly relevant if employment is terminated due to redundancy - the fairness of the redundancy process is likely to be one of the factors forming part of the “genuine operational reasons” test.

All employers, and particularly those with 100 or more workers and who may now be largely protected from unfair dismissal claims, should closely monitor the proposed changes, and may need to make changes to work practices in anticipation of them.

Tony Cavanagh is a partner at Mullane & Lindsay, and practises extensively in commercial and other litigation. We are available for consultations at our Tea Gardens office each Monday, Wednesday (by appointment) and Friday between 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm at 191 Myall Street Tea Gardens or at our Newcastle office at any other time during business hours (T: 4928 7300).