THE introduction of the federal government’s Fair Work Act earlier this year has continued to push the industrial relations industry to the limit. And from July 1 it’s expected that the number of employers seeking advice will increase when the minimum wage increase is phased in.
The number of Perth’s IR consultants may not have grown substantially over the past year, but they’re busy. (See Book of Lists, page 20.)
Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA manager industrial relations policy, Marcia Kuhne, said the number of calls from members specifically related to award modernisation doubled in January 2010 compared to the previous year.
“The main concerns have been award modernisation, unfair dismissals, agreement making and individual flexibility arrangements which is creating a lot of additional work for us,” she said.
“We haven’t necessarily taken on more resources in our call centre, but the resources that we’ve always had are stretched to full capacity.”
Ms Kuhne said the transition period for the act had taken longer than when WorkChoices was introduced because the changes were so extensive. She said there remained some confusion in the industry on which aspects of the awards transitioned and which didn’t.
“It’s not absolutely crystal clear whether, for instance, the new overtime provisions start in July or if they should have already started from January 1.”
This sentiment was backed up by Workplace Relations & Management Consultants manager Tina Whitton, who said that her staff was frustrated by the advice they had been receiving from Fair Work Australia.
“FWA are the body that have been put in place to ensure businesses are compliant, but they aren’t able to provide you with an answer, or they provide you with two or three answers,” she said.
Ms Whitton said she had employed more staff because the information surrounding the act wasn’t straightforward.
