Australian Workplace Agreements - How They Work For You
MoneyMoz.com presents you “Australian Workplace Agreements - How They Work For You”, an article written by Philip Lye. We hope you’ll find a lot useful information in here.
MoneyMoz.com will present you every article we find interesting and educating, and which has no copyright protection. If available we’ll link the source.
The employer / employee relations environment has been constantly evolving during the last 25 years. In Australia, as in many western nations, the balance between employers and employees has shifted back and forwards usually in response to supply and demand.
At times worker organisations, such as unions, have caused considerable problems for employers while arguing that unionism protects workers pay and conditions.
| MoneyMoz recommended article: Resumes and First impressions Hunting for a position in a new career field? Trying to take your new education or skills and transform them into a job with a future? I've spent the last few weeks working in a placement service trying to help people find that first “career” job; trying to help them make the transition from student to employee. I see the same mistakes over and over again. Here are a couple of things to be aware of as you search for that fresh start. Ebay - When my Dispute went Wrong! I decided to write this article to warn everyone using ebay, what can go wrong for the buyer when the goods do not turn up. Recently i won an auction on ebay, which luckily for me was at a low price and what a relief that was after what happened next. After a week had gone by and no goods turned up, i contacted the seller by email, a few days passed and no reply so i wrote another email a bit stronger this time to hopefully get an answer. Another week passed and still no answer, so i decided to file a dispute under ebay policy. Ten days had passed since i had paid which was required, i stipulated in my dispute that i had contacted the seller twice with no reply. |
While this has been true in some arenas it has also been true that this has come at the expense of enterprise flexibility.
Small business today needs the flexibility to rapidly respond to technological and sociological change and the old award system and its archaic inflexibility have to change.
In the late 80’s and 90’s there was a shift towards enterprise bargaining agreements and collective agreements which gave an individual enterprise increasing workplace flexibility.
These agreements, at the enterprise level, where parties were normally unions on behalf of workers and small business went some ways in achieving of flexibility but still retained some of the old thinking and inflexible practices. In essence the old award system continued to be a reference point for minimum wages and entitlements for workers.
In 1996 the federal government introduced Australian Workplace Agreements (AWA) which was specifically designed with individual business and worker in mind.
| MoneyMoz recommended article: Choose Your References Wisely! So, you need to submit employment references. A simple task, right? Sure, you could contact three of your closest friends and ask them to be your references. They may be able to testify to your character, but do they know how well you would perform on the job? Probably not. Let's explore the types of references you must seek, the number of people you should include, and to whom references should be submitted. Whom To Select |
At its fundamental level an AWA is a formal written agreement between an employer and an individual employee. A significant advantage to workers and business is that an AWA can be tailored to cover all particular requirements for your business.
AWAs have a life of 3 years, however if they are carefully written can continue long after the 3 year expiry date.
By way of example you may own a farm where seasonal workers are required. Your AWA can be designed to reflect seasonal requirements that suite both worker and employer.
You employees may want a 4 day working week. Your AWA can tailor this requirement into the agreement and without payment of penalty rates for working in excess of 8 hours per day.
Take Australian Zoo owned by Steve and Terri Irwin. Because of their unique requirements in caring for animals AWA’s have provided flexible working times. With a workforce of 450 people they have been able to grow their business in the certainty of wages and conditions.
Other advantages of an AWA may be that an employee is able to cash out sick leave at the end of every year reducing the amount of sick leave taken and providing an added incentive for turning up for work each day. It all adds up to flexibility.
An AWA can override state and federal award provisions, as long as the terms and conditions of the AWA overall do not disadvantage the employee when compared to the award. This gives the employer and employee certainty of conditions in the employment relationship.
A business without a written formal agreement between worker and the employer is at risk to claim before industrial tribunals and courts.
Certainly documenting and agreeing on individual workplace wages and conditions means certainty of cost and the ability to be competitive.
Cash, Costs and People are the number one ticket item in many businesses today.
For helpful information visit us at www.biz-momentum.com
Philip Lye is the founder of Biz Momentum Pty Ltd providing strategic human resource management to help your business grow.
Prior to starting Biz Momentum Philip was CEO and CFO of two companies. http://www.biz-momentum.com
Keywords assigned to this article by MoneyMoz: employee agreements, awa, flexibility
| MoneyMoz recommended article: Increasing Your Affiliate Program Profits Using Product Recommendations In affiliate marketing, there are numerous ways in which you can increase your earnings and maintain the account that you have worked so hard for. One of the more important and effective ways of increasing affiliate marketing bottom line is the use of product recommendations. Experienced Internet Marketers are already familiar with this approach. Before you delve headlong into product recommendations, here are important pointers to consider. Regroup - How To Do It And Why It Works Regroup…is this a new management trend? Not a chance! Regroup is simply an opportunity to end one month's business cycle, recap the performance of your company and outline a plan of success for the new upcoming month. Why does it work? Because it allows each person on your team to assess their performance from the previous month, and make any necessary adjustments for the new month. Here's how it works: Scheduling and preparing regroup: Regroup should be scheduled during the slowest time of each month and should start early in the morning, if possible. A solid and productive regroup takes about two hours and will require about one hour of preparation. Be certain to have a blank chalkboard or a standing easel for taking notes and keep distractions to a minimum. Regroup is also a time to build on the creative ideas from each person on your team, so make regroup a special part of each month and allow everyone to have equal time to share their feedback. Simply stated, there are no wrong questions or topics discussed at regroup and your team will respect and respond positively to this freedom. |