Transition to Forward with Fairness Bill introduced into Parliament
The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, the Hon Julia Gillard MP, introduced the Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Bill 2008 into the Australian Parliament on 13 February 2008.
The Bill will implement transitional arrangements to begin the process of phasing out the current Work Choices laws.
The Bill will make key amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996 such as:
- preventing the making of new Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) from the commencement date of the Bill
- allowing current employees on AWAs (as at 1 December 2007) to make Individual Transitional Employment Agreements (ITEAs), to be available only for limited use during the transitional period
- introducing a no-disadvantage test for ITEAs and new collective agreements, and
- enabling the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) to undertake the process of award modernisation.
The Bill will also remove the requirement for employers to provide a copy of the Workplace Relations Fact Sheet to their employees.
The transitional arrangements will be followed by the introduction of more substantial workplace relations legislation into Parliament later this year to ensure the Government's new workplace relations system can be fully operational by 1 January 2010.