Work Smart July 2009
National IR system Fair Work Australia
New Office of Industrial Relations website
Workplace information for the signing deaf community
New classroom resource helps migrants into work
OIR Inspectors - helping to make NSW workplaces fairer
Restaurants and cafes warned to give workers a fair go
Frequently Asked Questions
Need more help? Call us on 131 628
Related information
The NSW Office of Industrial Relations (OIR) provides information and help to workers and employers about wages, entitlements and workplace rights and obligations.
WELCOME to the July edition of Work Smart, your quarterly online community newsletter from OIR. This newsletter is for anyone working with, or interested in the employment rights of, young people and people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities in NSW.
This edition features important information about recent changes to workplace laws and some great new resources for you and your clients, including:
- the new OIR website, with three separate channels for employers, workers and young people
- a series of videos in Australian Sign Language for the signing deaf community, and
- a new classroom resource for migrants and refugees who are studying English in NSW.
Also in this edition we bring you an update on the impressive work of the OIR inspectorate and a warning about exploitation of workers in the restaurant and café business for you to pass on to your clients and students.
Enjoy July Work Smart and don't forget to email us with your comments at crt@oir.commerce.nsw.gov.au If you have any questions about your workplace rights and entitlements, call the OIR Information Hotline on 131 628. Interpreters are available - just ask for the language you want.
What's New: National IR System - Fair Work Australia
The Fair Work Act 2009 provides a national workplace relations system that aims to provide:
- a fair and comprehensive safety net of minimum employment conditions
- good faith bargaining at enterprise level
- protection from unfair dismissal for all employees
- opportunities for the low paid to improve their wages and conditions
- a balance between work and family life
- the right to be represented in the workplace.
The first part of the national system started on 1 July 2009, with parts of the new Fair Work Act and Fair Work Regulations applying to all corporations and businesses falling within the federal industrial relations system.
The remaining parts of the new system will start on 1 January 2010. This will include the new modern award system and the ten national employment standards that will apply to every worker covered by the national system.
It is important to find out which system covers your work so you know whether or not the new national laws apply to you.
Does the new national system cover your work?
The federal Fair Work Act 2009 (the new national system) covers incorporated NSW businesses (Pty Ltd or Limited companies). Employers and workers whose businesses are constitutional corporations will usually be covered by federal workplace laws.
Some businesses remain in the NSW state system. If your employer is a sole trader (just one person) or in a partnership (two or more people working together as an unincorporated company), at this stage NSW industrial relations laws will continue to apply to your workplace.
You can use the State or Federal look-up tool on the OIR website to find out which laws apply to your workplace.
Important changes under the new federal IR laws
As of 1 July 2009, parts of the new Fair Work Act 2009 and Fair Work Regulations came into effect including new enterprise bargaining laws and unfair dismissal provisions.
A new federal agency, Fair Work Australia, has also been established. This new agency incorporates the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and the Workplace Authority. The Fair Work Ombudsman replaces the Workplace Ombudsman.
Unfair Dismissal - employees in the federal system now only have 14 days to make a claim
New unfair dismissal laws apply to NSW employers and employees whose workplaces are covered by the new federal legislation.
Importantly, workers covered by the federal system now have only fourteen days from the date of dismissal to lodge a claim for unfair dismissal with Fair Work Australia.
To lodge an unfair dismissal claim, a certain amount of time must have been worked with the employer. The amount of qualifying time depends on the size of the business.
For businesses with 15 or more full-time workers, the qualifying period is six months; for businesses with fewer than 15 full-time workers it is 12 months.
For businesses and workers who remain in the NSW state system, the unfair dismissal laws remain the same, with a 21 day lodgement period. For more information read our Unfair dismissal fact sheet.
More information about the new national system
For more information go to the Fair Work Australia section of the OIR website, where you will also find the new National Workplace Relations System fact sheet.
New look for Office of Industrial Relations website
The OIR website has had a facelift, making it easier to navigate.
The website now has distinct topic channels for employers, workers and young people, with information for each of these groups about NSW employment laws. It remains a reliable source of practical, accessible and accurate information on everything from pay rates to workplace entitlements.
In addition to its new appearance and user-friendly format, the website now provides two electronic information services to keep you up-to-date with developments in industrial relations in NSW.
Information updates - Email messages and RSS Feeds
You now have the option of receiving information updates by two methods, email updates or RSS Feeds (also known as News Feeds).
If you use the email updates services, you will receive an email each time there is an update or new content in your nominated award areas on the OIR website.
With RSS feeds, your news reader automatically sends you notification about any changes to the areas of the OIR website you have nominated. Some advantages of using RSS feeds are that they are not affected by spam or viruses and can help you to manage your information updates more efficiently.
Areas of the OIR website that have been set up for RSS feeds are indicated by this symbol 
.
For more information about how RSS feeds work, the benefits of subscribing to the service and how to set up your individual RSS feed subscriptions, access this link What's this?.
Auslan videos - helping deaf workers understand their workplace rights
Late last month, OIR became the first NSW government agency to provide the state's signing deaf community with information in their own language - Australian Sign Language (Auslan).
Ministerial Launch at Parliament House
Minister for Industrial Relations, John Hatzistergos, officially launched the OIR Auslan Info Bytes resource at Sydney's Parliament House on June 30.
Gerry Shearim, from the Deaf Society of NSW, interprets for the Minister, John Hatzistergos, at the Auslan Info Bytes launch.
Deaf workers and job seekers
Around ten percent of the NSW population (or more than 660,000 people) live with complete or partial hearing loss.
Many of these people rely on Australian Sign Language to communicate and they are often amongst the state's most vulnerable workers and job seekers. They face significant barriers to obtaining the information and assistance they need, which impacts on the type of employment they are engaged in and whether or not they find work at all.
The OIR has developed the Auslan Info Bytes resource in response to this clear and pressing need for workplace information to be provided in a way that the signing deaf community can easily access and understand.
Auslan - the 'native' language of the signing deaf community in NSW
The NSW Government recognises Auslan as the primary language of people who are deaf or have severe hearing impairment and understands their need for information in their own language.
Auslan is not based on the English language. It is a visual language with its own unique syntax and grammar and does not have a written form. For this reason, reading information from a website is not practical for many deaf Australians.
Auslan Info Bytes - a series of videos in Australian Sign Language
The Office worked closely with the Deaf Society of NSW to develop the Auslan Info Bytes resource, which is a series of short videotaped messages showing a deaf person delivering important workplace information in Australian Sign Language (Auslan).
The videos cover a range of topics - from illegal unpaid trial work and the importance of keeping workplace records, to wages, working conditions and the differences between full-time, part-time and casual work.
OIR and the Deaf Society of NSW lead the way
It is hoped that the public launching of OIR's Auslan resource will encourage other agencies across the state to develop their own Auslan resources for the signing deaf community.
To view the Auslan videos, go to the In another language section of the OIR website.
To find out more about developing an Auslan resource for your agency, contact Jasmine Rozsa, Senior Interpreting Service Officer at the Deaf Society of NSW: Ph: (voice): (02) 8833 3664; TTY: (02) 8833 3653; jazrozsa@deafsociety.com.au
New classroom resource helps migrants into work
The NSW Minister for Industrial Relations, John Hatzistergos, also recently launched a new classroom resource to educate migrants and refugees in Western Sydney about their workplace rights and entitlements.
Minister, John Hatzistergos, and Managing Director of the ACL Consortium, Helen Zimmerman, discuss the Starting Work resource with AMEP students at the Parramatta campus.
A challenging time for job seekers
Speaking at the launch Mr Hatzistergos acknowledged it was a challenging time to look for work. When people first arrive in our country they are often employed in low paid and casual positions, where they are particularly vulnerable. This is why it is important to provide information about their workplace rights and entitlements.
The Starting Work resource improves understanding of workplace rights
The Starting Work resource engages students in a range of interactive classroom activities while they follow the story of Ali, a newly arrived migrant, who has to overcome a number of work-related problems as he settles into life in Australia.
It helps them understand the Australian workplace, learn how to find out the correct pay and conditions for their work and know where to go for help if they have workplace problems.
Delivering Starting Work to AMEP students of the ACL Consortium
OIR worked closely with staff from the ACL Consortium, one of Australia's leading providers of adult English language teaching, to develop Starting Work for their Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) students.
By delivering this resource via the ACL Consortium's AMEP program, the OIR is making important workplace information available in a safe learning environment while people are settling into life in NSW. This will help them to overcome some of the barriers they may otherwise face in obtaining the workplace information and help they need.
Starting Work features a student activity book and teachers' notes and has been delivered to 2,900 students in Auburn, Cabramatta, Fairfield, Parramatta, Blacktown and Liverpool.
OIR Inspectors
OIR inspectors continue to work hard to ensure our state's workplaces are fair and employers provide the appropriate pay and conditions for their workers.
In the 2008/2009 financial year, inspectors from the Industrial Relations Service Delivery (IRSD) unit recovered more than $4 million dollars in unpaid wages and entitlements for workers in NSW.
This money was recovered for around 64,000 workers during more than 14,000 investigations - roughly 1,230 complaints and 12, 870 targeted workplace inspections. This represents 13,500 breaches of NSW laws including 2,200 employers underpaying staff.
During the past financial year, staff of the IRSD unit also provided information to employers and employees across the state in response to 155,687 telephone enquiries and 5,672 written enquiries.
For help with your workplace questions, call the OIR hotline on 131 628 or send an email or online complaint form via the website.
Restaurants and cafes warned to give workers a fair go
The OIR is reminding employers and workers in the hospitality and catering industries about their rights and obligations under NSW industrial relations laws.
Requiring staff to work unpaid trials and docking wages for unpaid bills is illegal under NSW industrial relations laws.
Vulnerable workers most at risk of exploitation
Nearly 20 percent of all complaints received by OIR concern the accommodation and hospitality industries. Unfortunately it is often the state's most vulnerable workers who are exploited, including young people, migrants and refugees.
Most employers do treat staff fairly and provide the correct wages and other entitlements in return for their hard work. However, some business owners continue to take advantage of people's lack of experience or knowledge about workplace laws.
Illegal workplace practices - things employers must not do
It is illegal for an employer to:
- take money from a worker's pay to make up for a customer who has not paid their bill (and this cannot be written into an employee's contract)
- make a worker do unpaid trial work, even if it is only for a small number of hours
- pay a worker in cash without deducting tax from their earnings, or
- refuse to provide the worker with a pay slip detailing their working time, payment and legal deductions each time they are paid.
Help your clients protect themselves when they start work
It is a good idea to keep a work diary as a record of events such as hours worked and wages paid. This can be vital in helping workers who need to make a formal complaint against their employer in the future.
If any of your clients or students think they are being underpaid or not receiving their correct entitlements, please encourage them to contact the Office of Industrial Relations for assistance.
Please also note it is possible for a worker to recover money from an employer after leaving their job. However they must have a legitimate claim and must notify the Office as soon as possible.
For more information call the Office on 131 628, or go to the Your Opinion Counts page on the OIR website.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Question: What type of leave can I use if I am instructed to stay at home because I have been in contact with someone who has Swine Flu?
Answer: The NSW Government encourages employers and employees to take a cooperative approach to managing their responsibilities in a fair and equitable manner should this situation arise.
With the agreement of your employer, you may be eligible to use sick leave, special leave or other types of leave to cover such an absence from work.
See the OIR website for practical information to help employers and workers to deal with these issues.
Question: On my calendar Monday 5 October is marked as the Labour Day Holiday. Is this correct and why do we have a holiday on this day?
Answer: Yes, the Labour Day holiday falls on Monday 5 October 2009.
This holiday celebrates the adoption of the eight hour working day. Each state celebrates Labour Day on a different date because they achieved the eight hour working day on different dates.
The public holiday for the eight hour working day was first held in New South Wales in 1885.
The achievement of shorter working hours was considered a very big change at that time.
The Labour Day holiday is not a restricted trading day. All employees who work on the Labour Day holiday must be paid the appropriate penalty rates for working on that day.
Sunday 4 October is an ordinary Sunday trading day. Employees who work on the Sunday must also be paid the appropriate penalty rates for working on that day.
See our website for more information on rates of pay on public holidays.
Need more help? Call us on 131 628
It can be confusing to know which IR scheme you are working under and what kind of agreement covers your pay and conditions.
To find out which system covers your work you can use the new online tool State or Federal Jurisdiction? Just enter your employer's ABN number or legal business name and you can search for which system they fall under. There is also extra information on the OIR website to help.
The OIR also provides a range of other services to help both workers and employers with their rights and obligations under the NSW state system and also all young workers (under 18 years of age) working for employers in both the state and federal systems.