Employment Relations (Flexible Working Hours) Amendment Bill
This Bill was introduced into Parliament in March this year and proposes to grant “qualifying employees” the right to change their working hours when they have the full time care of:
- a child or children under 5 years, or
- a disabled child or children up to and including 18 years.
This would mean employers will have to make a formal business assessment on how such flexible working hours can be achieved. Subject to meeting certain proposed criteria (i.e. care of a child/application within time limits) an employer will have to acknowledge that a qualifying employee has the right to work whenever possible and the employer must deal with the application as soon as possible.
The Bill proposes that an employer may only refuse an application on the following grounds:
- inability to re-organise work among existing staff
- inability to recruit additional staff
- detrimental impact on quality
- detrimental impact on performance
- insufficiency of work during the period employee proposes to work
- planned organisational structural changes
Employers will continue to be bound by other provisions in the E.R Act including dealing with this matter in good faith.
We will keep you posted on the outcome of this Bill.
Employment Agreements
Following the various employment legislative changes introduced last year, employers are reminded to ensure that not only are Individual Agreements provided in writing, but that they also now incorporate the relevant changes into their agreements.
Agreements must be updated to reflect the following legislated changes:
- payment of time and half for working a Public Holiday,
- amendments to Bereavement Leave provisions
- Inclusion of a clause pertaining to employee protection upon
the sale or contracting out of part or whole of the business.
- Union fees must be deducted and remitted upon an employee’s
request irrespective whether the employee is covered by
a collective agreement or an individual agreement.
Consideration will need to be given to your company documents (Staff Booklets/Policy Manuals etc) and Agreements to determine whether these require updating as a result of the above legislative changes.
