The Federal Government has introduced a wide array of changes to the Fair Work Act. Some of these changes will only impact your business if you:
- Use labour hire staff
- Employ casual workers or contractors
- Own a franchise
- Have staff who are union members
- Or engage gig workers
If any of the above apply to your organisation, please get in touch with the End2end Business Solutions team for specific advice on how they may affect your operations.
However, the Closing Loopholes legislation contains many more changes that will affect most businesses.
Below is a summary explanation of some of these changes. You can see the Fair Work Ombudsman’s useful snapshot of all the Closing Loopholes workplace laws here.
Changes to Casual Employment
This legislation has been tightened to avoid confusion. The new definition of a casual worker says an employee is only casual if:
- There isn’t a firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work, factoring in the real substance, practical reality and true nature of the employment relationship
- The employee is entitled to be paid a casual loading or a specific pay rate for casuals
Timing: This change commences on 26 August 2024
New ways for casual staff to become permanent
The existing rules around casual staff becoming permanent will change, although the details haven’t been released yet. In addition, there are new rules coming which will prevent dismissing (or threatening to dismiss) existing staff to make them casual employees. We will let you know when more details about this change are available.
Timing: These changes will commence on 26 August 2024
Right to disconnect rule
Much publicised in the media, the right to disconnect rules set boundaries for when employees can refuse to respond to emails, calls and text messages that are work related. These boundaries can be outlined in employment agreements or you can seek orders from the Fair Work Commission if you feel there could be problems for your business. Before you go down this path, we recommend you speak to us to obtain guidance.
Importantly, this rule applies to all businesses, large and small but there are different timings.
Timing: This change begins on 24 August 2024 for “non-small” businesses and 24 August 2025 for small businesses.
Industrial manslaughter and other criminal penalties introduced
The Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act is being amended to introduce the new criminal offence of workplace manslaughter. In addition, harsher penalties will be imposed for other workplace offences.
Timing: 1 July 2024
Wage underpayments considered more serious
The Fair Work Commission takes underpayment of employees seriously. As a result, the Closing Loopholes rules will introduce criminalisation of intentional wage underpayments and will increase the maximum penalties for other serious contraventions.
Timing: 1 January 2025
Changes already implemented
Greater protections for employees experiencing family and domestic violence
Last year, employment laws added 10 days paid leave for all workers (permanent, part-time or casual) experiencing family and domestic violence. At the end of 2023, this rule was expanded to provide greater protections from discrimination for this group of employees. Now, it is unlawful for an employer to take adverse action or discriminate against an employee who is experiencing domestic violence (or has experienced it in the past).
This new rule also applies to potential future employees with Awards and enterprise agreements required to eliminate any terms that discriminate against past or current victim-survivors of domestic violence.
Small business redundancy exemptions removed
In the past, if an organisation downsized its workforce to fewer than 15 employees, it wouldn’t be required to make redundancy payments. This loophole has been closed so now the need for redundancy payments is based on the organisation’s original size (i.e. before it downsized).
In summary
There are numerous changes to the Fair Work Act that have either come into law or will be coming into law within the next 18 months. These include:
- As an employer, you now have greater accountability for what occurs in your business and the consequences for your business, your management team and your directors can be significant.
- The impact on your business of the Closing Loopholes rules will depend on your industry, your business model and the Awards, enterprise agreements, policies and procedures you have in place.
These should always be checked regularly but in particular, you need to review them now.
End2end Business Solutions provides an auditing service to regularly review all of your Awards, enterprise agreements, policies and procedures to ensure your organisation is up-to-date and compliant. Please get in touch to learn more.