Simplifying Your Industrial Relations Challenges
Unfair dismissal. Two words that are claimed to send chills down the spine of small business owners everywhere. Making things worse for business owners are the various experts who have different views. Time to throw agendas and fantasy out the window and share the realities of unfair dismissal. You Can’t Prevent Unfair Dismissal There are some … Read more
A common complaint the media jumps on is that the Fair Work Act and Modern Awards are too hard to understand. There are even ‘experts’ like David Bates, who make up stories to fit with that claim. As I wrote in the previous article, if you want to find a way to understand the Fair Work … Read more
As a small business owner, are you intimidated by the Fair Work Act? Do you believe that it is virtually impossible to sack under-performing employees? If so, then the webinar “Understanding the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code” is for you. During the webinar, you will learn how you can use the Fair Work to your … Read more
[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”] If you read enough articles about the Fair Work Act, written by so-called experts, you start to see a common thread. That the Fair Work Act is complex and too hard for the average person to understand. Thankfully this isn’t the case, and most of the time they are pushing their … Read more
Every industry or area of expertise has it’s fair share of myths and misconceptions. For better or worse, industrial relations is no different.
As with most myths, they have some foundation in truth. Then end up getting blown out of proportion or distorted by time.
In no particular order are some of the most common myths about industrial relations
Aren’t company policies wonderful and divisive things?
Some organisations swear by them. Believing that it isn’t possible to have too many of them.
Yet, there are as many who have had enough of them. Considering company policies to be the bane of a competent managers existence.
Does an excess of company policies show poor management or employees?
Once the plethora of policies are in place, are they there for good, or can you get rid of them?
I do not believe that having a large number of policies is good for anyone.
What it does tend to show is that a) the wrong type of people are being employed, or b) management has lost the ability to manage their staff members.
If the wrong type of people are employed, then that process MUST change.
Tomorrow brings us into 2016, and for the past few days, the internet has been abuzz with talk of the changes that 2016 will bring.
That being said, and without it sounding cliched, or overdone, 2016 is bringing some changes to IR Simplified.
For the past few weeks, the team at IRSimplified.com.au have been busy putting things in place for the launch and re-launch of some new products and services.
Can I bribe you to subscribe to my email list? There are some great things happening at IR Simplified in 2016. Podcast re-launched More informative articles on how to simplify your industrial relations challenges Online training programs updated and relaunched Introduction of two membership levels (details coming soon) More webinars with practical advice Hands-on training … Read more
Conducting a procedurally fair workplace investigation is one of those things that a business cannot afford to get wrong. Workplace investigations done incorrectly not only have the potential to expose the business to an unfair dismissal application, a workplace bullying or discrimination complaint could also be lodged. Read through any of the recent successful unfair dismissal … Read more
When the Fair Work Act 2009 (cwth) come into operation on 01 July 2009, it brought with it s388(1) the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code.
The Code gives small businesses some extra ‘protections’ from unfair dismissal applications when terminating an employee.
Though what is it exactly, and does it apply to your business?
If your business is lucky enough to have less than 15 employees, per headcount, then you are classified as a small business, and the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code applies to you.
This means that any new employee needs to serve a minimum qualifying period of being employed for 12 months before they can access the unfair dismissal provisions of the Fair Work Act.
Unfortunately, this also means that if your business has 15 or more employees, then you aren’t classed as a small business. For those businesses, it means that employees only need to serve a qualifying period of six months before they can access the unfair dismissal provisions of the Fair Work Act.
As small businesses don’t have their own HR Departments, nor are they likely to access specialist advice, the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code was created to give small businesses a checklist that they can follow to ensure that the termination of an employee is legal and fair.
The theory is, that if a business follows The Code, they will be protected from a successful unfair dismissal application.
To do this, the business owner/manager answers the questions on the checklist, providing additional information where required.
The checklist is then added to the personnel file of the employee to be used/referred to if an unfair dismissal application is lodged.
While I hope that you never have to do one, there may come a time where a workplace investigation is needed.
Workplace investigations come about for any number of reasons, though the most common are due to a complaint from a customer/client about a staff member; a complaint from an employee about another employee; or even from a stocktake/audit.
As a manager or business owner, you will need to make the decision as to whether the investigation is handled internally or given to an external investigator.
As every investigation/complaint should be assessed and worked through individually, it is often difficult to know when it should be handled internally, and when it should be given to an external investigator.