Workplace Relations Framework Needs Repair Not Replacement - Productivity Commission
4th August 2015
The Australian Productivity Commission’s ‘The Workplace Relations Framework - Draft Report’ released today, stops short of recommending wholesale replacement of the current legislative and institutional system underpinning workplace regulation in Australia. Rather, it has opted for what it describes as ‘repair’ of some of the institutional structures and legal procedures applied in setting national minimum wages and conditions of employment.
The Productivity Commission Chairman, Peter Harris said:
“Despite sometimes significant problems and an assortment of peculiarities, Australia’s workplace relations system is not systemically dysfunctional. Many features work well — or at least well enough — given the requirement in any system for compromises between the sometimes conflicting goals of the parties involved … The key message of this inquiry is that repair, not replacement, should be the policy imperative. The adapted system needs to give primacy to substance over procedure, rebalance some aspects of the system that have favoured some parties over others, and revitalise its principal regulator.”
Some of the more significant recommendations of the Report include:
Establishing a Minimum Standards Division of the Fair Work Commission to assume responsibility for minimum wages and modern awards. All other functions of the Commission should remain in a Tribunal Division.
Five-year appointments of presidential members of the Fair Work Commission and performance based reviews for extensions of appointment.
Amend the National Employment Standards so that employers are not required to pay for leave or any additional penalty rates for any newly designated state and territory public holidays
Remove the emphasis on reinstatement as the primary goal of the unfair dismissal provisions
Change the penalty regime for unfair dismissal cases so that an employee can only receive compensation when they have been dismissed without reasonable evidence of persistent underperformance or serious misconduct
The Fair Work Act should require that general protections and workplace rights complaints are made in good faith and that the Fair Work Commission must decide this via a preliminary interview with the complainant before the action can proceed and prior to the convening of any conference involving both parties.
Introduce a cap on compensation for general protection and workplace rights applications
Sunday penalty rates that are not part of overtime or shift work should be set at Saturday rates for the hospitality, entertainment, retail, restaurants and cafe industries.
Weekend penalty rates should be set to achieve greater consistency between the hospitality, entertainment, retail, restaurants and cafe industries, but without the expectation of a single rate across all of them.
The Productivity Commission will conduct public hearings throughout Australia and accept submissions on the draft report no later than Friday 18 September 2015.