As we see the industrial relations landscape continue to evolve, including the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Act 2022, there are a number of recent and upcoming workplace relations changes in Australia that it is important for you to be aware of.
Below is a high level summary of the key changes and the date of when each change came into or comes into effect – this is an important list that needs to be considered for all organisations to ensure compliance. Please note, there are a number of other reforms including some that affect enterprise agreements and bargaining which we encourage you to consider also.
- Pay Secrecy – Employers can no longer issue employment contracts which include pay secrecy clauses. Any pay secrecy clause included in a new contract will have no effect and it is a breach of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act) which can result in penalties. Employees now have the right to share and discuss their individual remuneration information with other employees and an employer cannot take action against an employee for this. However, it’s important that you are aware that a pay secrecy clause in an existing contract will be preserved until the contract is varied in anyway. Therefore, at this stage, this is only applicable to for new employees who commenced on or after 7 Dec 2022 or when an existing employee varies their terms and conditions of employment.
- Anti-discrimination – Anti-discrimination protections have been extended to include breastfeeding, gender identity and intersex status. Policies need to be reviewed and, where relevant, updated to include the additional protections.
- Job Advertisements – job ads cannot include rates of pay that breach the Fair Work Act or applicable industrial instrument.
- Family & Domestic Violence Leave – From 1 February, employees are entitled to 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave per year, this includes permanent and casual employees. Please note, this is applicable to employers with 15 or more employees. For employers with less than 15 employees, the entitlement commences from 1 August 2023.
Should you wish to discuss any aspect of your organisation’s workplace relations approaches, policies and compliance please contact deliberatepractice on 1300 deliberate (1300 335 423).