After two years of consultation, Western Australia's Barnett Government has released its draft IR changes that seek to harmonise the state's unfair dismissal and right of entry laws, but stop short of reversing its refusal to join the national IR system.
Commerce Minister Simon O'Brien on Wednesday tabled in Parliament the draft Labour Relations Legislation Amendment and Repeal Bill 2012.
O'Brien said the draft bill proposed to modernise the WA IR system, which covers a third of the state's workers (mainly employed by unincorporated small business and the public sector), and which he claims is some "10 years behind what modern employers and employees need and expect to ensure workplace flexibility and productivity".
"The changes outlined in the draft Bill will help bring the State's industrial relations system into the 21st century. There are currently 200 private sector awards, many of which are outdated and do not reflect contemporary workplaces. There will be a requirement for the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission to make new modern awards for the private sector," he said.
Amongst the key changes, the Barnett Government proposes to "broadly" harmonise the State's unfair dismissal and right of entry laws with those in the Fair Work Act, and update statutory minimum employment conditions (currently contained in the Minimum Conditions of Employment Act, which will be repealed) in a new state employment standard (SES) detailed in Part 12 of the draft bill.
According to the Explanatory Memorandum, the proposed SES will substantively reflect current provisions in the MCE Act, with some changes (see below). But the SES will not be implied into industrial instruments or contracts of employment, allowing the SES to be "enforced directly", unlike under s5(1) of the MCE Act.
The draft bill is the product of an already lengthy consultation process, and incorporates many of the recommendations made by Ashurst partner Steven Amendola in his review of WA's IR system commissioned by the Barnett Government in 2009, together with stakeholder feedback.
Amendola's review, released two years ago (more than a year after he provided it to then State IR Minister Troy Buswell), called for sweeping reforms including replacing the IR Act, Minimum Conditions of Employment Act and Employment Dispute Resolution Act with a single, comprehensive piece of legislation (see Related Article), including referring the state's IR powers to the Commonwealth (see Related Article).
The Barnett Government said at the time it would consider some of the technical changes amongst the 193 recommendations, but refused to countenance some of the "Work-Choices-type policies", which Amendola quickly rejected as a misrepresentation of his findings (see Related Article).
Among his changes, Amendola advocated that the state's unfair dismissal and right of entry laws be harmonised to reflect the Fair Work Act. This, amongst other suggested changes, has been incorporated into the draft bill.
The draft bill also proposes to:
- introduce the State Employment Standards (repealing the current MCE Act), which will: provide a minimum safety net to disabled employees; grant compassionate leave to permanent employees; prevent employers from making unreasonable deductions from employees' pay; and require employers to provide employees with pay slips;
- streamline the structure of the WA IRC, including by abolishing the President's position and constituent authorities;
- empower the IRC to modernise all State private sector awards, and review all State awards every four years;
- extend the maximum nominal expiry date of industrial agreements to four years and enterprise orders to three years;
- strengthen the regulation of registered organisations and associations; and
- increase the maximum penalties for contravention of industrial instruments, Commission orders or statutory minimum conditions of employment.
"After Work Choices, the Amendola Review and Premier Barnett's opinion that penalty rates should be abolished, working people in WA are right to distrust Liberal Governments when it comes to industrial relations," Hammat said.
The WA Government has invited interested parties to provide written submissions on the draft Bill by January 13, by email to cara.breuder@commerce.wa.gov.au, or by post to Cara Breuder, Department of Commerce Labour Relations Division, Locked Bag 14, Cloisters Square, Perth WA 6850.
Labour Relations Legislation Amendment and Repeal Bill 2012
Explanatory Explanatory Memorandum
Summary of changes to the WA industrial relations system contained in the draft Bill