The Secure Jobs and Better Pay Bill 2022 was passed in November 2022 as an amendment to the Fair Work Act 2009.
Some changes start immediately, and others will roll out over the next six months to a year.
The act amends workplace relations laws relating to many aspects of employment. While not every new law will affect every employer, it’s essential to understand the extensive changes that are coming.
The Main Changes
- Flexibility of working hours, enabling workers to negotiate hours that suit them.
- Collective enterprise bargaining allows employers within the same industries to negotiate common pay and conditions agreements.
- Changes to the enterprise bargaining system to make it easier for employees to initiate bargaining for an enterprise agreement where existing enterprise agreements have expired.
- Fixed term contract limitations will constrain the number of times a contract can be renewed. This should result in employers offering permanent positions to workers once the contracts have ended.
- Pay secrecy clauses in employment agreements must be removed, meaning an employer cannot force an employee to keep from discussing their pay with colleagues.
- The right to protection from sexual harassment means employers must be proactive in fostering an environment free from sexual harassment.
- Changes to the better off overall test (BOOT) should make assessing whether a proposed agreement passes the test simpler.
- Equal remuneration principles to promote gender pay equality.
What Next?
The Bill has brought significant reforms to employee entitlements that make it more important than ever to ensure your employment agreements comply with the new laws.
There will be more updates later in the year about the changes, but in the meantime, think about if the above changes might affect your business.
This post was originally written by BOMA and has been updated to make it more personal.
