Like most businesses, you’re probably still dealing with the changes to industrial relations laws and legislation that have taken effect 1 July 2013 with the start of a new financial year. Significantly we’ve seen increases to superannuation, a 2.6% increase to the minimum wage and minimum award wages, and increases to penalty rates in some industries.
But if that wasn’t enough, the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2013 has recently been released, announcing a raft of changes that will start to take effect from 1 January 2014.
These changes are more than just financial however, and businesses will need to start planning now in order to accommodate the potential impact of these changes on their work flow, staffing hours and need to be even more flexible and accommodating to the needs of parents and care givers in the workplace.
Critically, these are 3 key changes all employers need to be aware of:
- There is an extension to the right of employees to request flexible work arrangements. Currently this only applies to primary carers of children who are a) under school age or b) under the age of 18 with a disability. From 1 January this will extend to also include:
- Employees who are carers of children who are of school age or younger
- Employees who are 55 years or older
- Employees who have a disability
- Employees who are a ‘carer’
- An employee who is experiencing violence from a family member, or who provides care or support for a family member because that family member is experiencing violence from another family member
- Employers must adhere to new restrictions on what constitutes ‘reasonable business grounds’ for declining any request for flexible work arrangements from the above employees
- Employers are now required to conduct a genuine consultation process with employees before being able to change rosters or working hours, and take into account the employees feedback on such changes, including impact made to their family and caring responsibilities, before such change can be made.
These are set amongst a number of other changes which will also come into effect 1 January 2014, with further changes to Parental Leave Entitlements which will also come into effect most likely during the first quarter of 2014. Unlike purely updating a payroll system and budgeting for increases, these changes may see a change in the way businesses need to work and how the workflow and processes are managed in their business. So especially for businesses with parents and carers amongst their staff force, this is a time to think ahead, plan for the potential of change and look into what can be accommodated to meet these new family friendly workplace measures.
