1. Employment Relations (Flexible Working Hours) Amendment Bill
You will recall from our newsletter (3/2004) late last year that the above Bill had been introduced into Parliament and that it proposed the granting to “Qualifying Employees” the right to change their working hours (reduce or go part time) when the employee had the full time care of a child under 5 or a disabled child or children 18 years and under.
Due to the upcoming election there will be no further action by the Select Committees on most Bills including this proposed amendment until some time after the election and indeed may depend on who forms the next Government.
We will keep you posted should the Bill eventually continue to progress through the Select Committee stages.
2. Employment Relations Amendment Act (No 2) 2004
A recent court case clarified the “Employee Protection” provisions included in the above Amendment Act which came into effect in December last year.
The Employee Protection provisions provide “Specified Category” employees (Cleaners and catering services staff) with an entitlement to elect to transfer their employment to a new employer when a business is to be restructured. The recent court case noted that the Act applies only to businesses that are sold or transferred and that the provisions do not apply when an employer loses a “Contract for Work.” Therefore employees of a company which loses contract work (even if the employees are specified category employees) do not have an entitlement to transfer their employment to the new contractor. That is, where a catering or cleaning contractor does not have their contract renewed and another contractor is signed on instead; the employees of the original contractor will not be able to elect to transfer to the new contractor. Rather the original contractor will have to either find alternative employment elsewhere in the business for their employees or make the employees redundant. It will be up to the new contractor whether they wish to offer employment to the original contractor’s employees.
