Review of Modern Awards 2012
The Fair Work Legislation requires the Tribunal (FWA) to conduct a review of all Modern Awards during 2012. The President has now issued a statement calling for applications/submissions to vary Modern Awards to enable the process to commence after March 2012.
Livingstones will be preparing a number of these applications on behalf of our clients across several industries and we are seeking your views and input into this process.
Since the Modern Awards commenced operation on 1 January 2010, limited scope has existed to vary these Awards and FWA has shown that it is reluctant to vary them unless there is an obvious error requiring amendment, preferring instead to hold over the majority of applications until the 2012 formal review process. The FWA statement and the review process does not limit the scope of changes that can be sought to a Modern Award. However, any such applications will obviously be closely scrutinised by FWA and subject to Hearings before a single member of the Tribunal.
Some areas of practical difficulty that have already been raised by clients include provision for more flexible employment conditions, hours of work and rostering arrangements, as well as difficulties dealing with new penalty rate regimes and the transitional provisions contained in the Modern Awards.
Livingstones’ clients are encouraged to contact Laurie Moloney, Zoe McIntosh, Travis Lancaster or Nathan Lindsay to discuss any issues or areas of concern that you believe need to be addressed with Fair Work Australia. Where possible, we will meet with clients to discuss any issues in more detail prior to lodging any applications to vary a Modern Award.
We believe it is important that Fair Work Australia be made aware of the practical experiences with these Modern Awards to enable it to consider any suggestions, amendments or improvements. The deadline for applications is 8 March 2012. For further information contact:
Laurie Moloney, (07) 3833 1212, lmoloney@livingstones.com.au
Zoe McIntosh, (07) 3833 1209, zmcintosh@livingstones.com.au
Travis Lancaster, (07) 3833 1241, tlancaster@livingstones.com.au
Nathan Lindsay, (07) 3833 1217, nlindsay@livingstones.com.au
