On 9 December 2020, the Federal Government introduced its much anticipated amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Act) to Parliament.
The Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia's Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill (the Bill) follows consultation between Government and employer and employee representative bodies as foreshadowed by Attorney General Christian Porter's IR Roundtables earlier this year, and propose significant amendments to five key areas of the legislation. These are:
| Category | Key Changes |
| Casual employment | Insertion of statutory definition of casual employee |
| Insertion of statutory casual conversion mechanism | |
| Orders to offset identifiable casual loading amounts | |
| Modern awards | Certain JobKeeper flexibilities to be retained for a period of two years |
| Greater flexibility for part time employees to work additional hours at their ordinary rate of pay | |
| Enterprise agreements | Significant overhaul of the better off overall test |
| Simplification of the FWC agreement approval process | |
| Greenfield agreements | Agreements for major project works may have a nominal term of eight years |
| Agreements with a nominal term between four and eight years must provide for annual pay increases every year throughout the nominal term | |
| Compliance and enforcement | Criminalisation of wage underpayment |
| Increased penalties for serious contraventions and sham contracting | |
| Increased power for the FWC to dismiss an application, including insertion of new power for FWC to make orders about further applications after dismissal |
For further details of the proposed changes, please click on each of the links in the table above.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
