Federal Government passes Fair Work Amendment Bill

The Federal Government has finally passed the Fair Work Amendment bill, which includes both minor and major changes to industrial relations law.

Some of the key changes:

– Unfair Dismissal. The big issue for small businesses is that the new legislation has extended the unfair dismissal application to 21 days.

– Fair Work now has more power to strike down applications for award rate changes that have no reasonable prospects for success.

– There are some major changes to the role of unions, with Fair Work ruling that bargaining notices have to be more specific and that union officials can no longer be a bargaining representative for employees that do not belong to that union.

-There are also a few key changes to enterprise agreements, with clauses that allow employees to ‘opt out’ now prohibited. As well the act now bans anyone from making an enterprise agreement with just one employee.