With the JobKeeper Scheme ending on 28 March 2021 and Treasury estimating that between 100,000 to 150,000 JobKeeper recipients could lose employment when the scheme ends, we thought that it was an important time to provide expert advice and guidance for employers navigating the world of restructuring, workforce change and planning.
Implementing workforce change, whether on a small or larger scale, is one of the most difficult and unpleasant tasks faced by managers and senior leaders. There are complex and sensitive issues that requires effective planning, communication and an awareness of legal obligations and risks. However, workforce change can drive positive benefits if a properly executed program takes place. Such benefits include the better use of talent, and productivity gains and new methods of working in light of the changing nature of business and society.
Things to consider include:
- Workforce Change: The benefits of workforce change and alternatives to redundancies such as job redesign, redeployment, reduction in overtime and efficient rostering gains;
- Stakeholder Management: Dealing with unions, employees and other key stakeholders;
- Developing the Business Case: Having the necessary documentation and ability to communicate effectively to stakeholders;
- Check the Rules: Awareness of legal obligations that may arise under employment contracts, redundancy policies and industrial instruments;
- Voluntary Redundancies: How to manage and retain veto rights to retain the most productive staff and also how to manage compulsory redundancies involving objective selection criteria matrices;
- Redundancy communications: How to manage communications to the workforce, the union and the individual employees; and
- Potential legal claims: Having a firm understanding of potential legal claims, such as breach of contract, contraventions of industrial instruments, disputes in the Fair Work Commission where status quo provisions prevail, unfair dismissals, general protections and discrimination-based claims.
Ai Group Workplace Lawyers are well placed to provide employers with ongoing support and assistance through all stages of workforce change from devising restructure plans, drafting communications and scripts, reviewing selection processes for unintended discrimination / bias claims, coaching line managers and human resources and providing practical legal and non-legal advice at all stages of the process.
If you would like more information about the end of JobKeeper and JobKeeper directions, please contact Ai Group’s Workplace Advice Service on 1300 55 66 77.
Alternatively, if you would like advice or assistance with implementing workforce change, disputes or employee claims, we would be happy to assist from any of our Ai Group Workplace offices in Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne, Wollongong, Brisbane, Adelaide or Perth, or contact Ai Group Workplace Lawyers here:
Phone 1300 55 45 81
By: Luca Saccoccio