There are a number of important Government Bills that are before the Commonwealth Parliament, dealing with workplace relations and related matters:

• The Fair Work Amendment (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2018 would amend the National Employment Standards in the Fair Work Act to implement five days of unpaid family and domestic violence leave.
• The Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2017 would introduce a public interest test for amalgamations of registered organisations, expand the circumstances in which officials of registered organisations can be disqualified from holding office, and allow the Federal Court to cancel the registration of an organisation on a range of grounds.
• The Fair Work Amendment (Repeal of 4 Yearly Reviews of Modern Awards and Other Measures) Bill 2017 would amend the Fair Work Act to abolish 4 yearly Reviews of Awards and give the FWC more discretion to overlook minor procedural non-compliance in the enterprise agreement-making process, provided that the employees are unlikely to have been disadvantaged.
• The Fair Work Laws Amendment (Proper Use of Worker Benefits) Bill 2017 would implement appropriate governance standards for employee entitlement funds such as construction industry redundancy funds.
• The Modern Slavery Bill 2018 would establish a modern slavery reporting requirement for businesses with an annual consolidated revenue of $100 million or more. Businesses would be required to publish annual public statements on what steps they have taken, and will take, to address modern slavery in their supply chains and operations.

Ai Group has participated in Parliamentary inquiries into each of the above Bills and has made detailed submissions on each Bill.

If you would like advice about awards or other compliance obligations, please contact Ai Group’s Workplace Advice Service on 1300 55 66 77.

Alternatively, if you would like advice about company policies or enterprise bargaining please contact your local employment, workplace and industrial lawyer in Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, Adelaide, Melbourne or Brisbane or email Ai Group Workplace Lawyers at info@aigroupworkplacelawyers.com.au.