A range of new employment laws are one step closer in Western Australia after the Labor Government’s Industrial Relations Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 passed the Legislative Assembly last Thursday (18 November).
The Bill is part of an overhaul of the state’s industrial relations system, and described by WA Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Johnston, who was IR Minister when a previous IR bill was introduced last June, as “largely an embodiment of the 2020 bill”.
The legislation will bolster anti-bullying and sexual harassment laws, inspector powers and penalties for non-compliance.
Industrial Relations Minister Stephen Dawson said the Bill aimed to modernise Western Australia’s employment laws, while also implementing the Government’s election commitments to make Easter Sunday a public holiday from 2022 and to introduce an entitlement to five days of unpaid family and domestic violence leave per year for all employees.
The new laws will also extend coverage of minimum conditions to domestic and support workers employed directly by household employers.
Other key provisions of the Bill are:
- provide the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission the power to issue a stop-bullying order in relation to sexual harassment, consistent with the Australian Human Rights Commission’s 2020 Respect@Work Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report;
- introducing an equal remuneration jurisdiction for the WAIRC;
- introducing penalties for non-compliance with employment laws that align with the national industrial relations system and enhancing the powers of industrial inspectors to ensure compliance;
- prohibiting an employer from forcing an employee to pay back part of their wages (‘cash backs’);
- addressing the lack of certainty for WA local governments as to which industrial relations jurisdiction applies, by taking steps to bring all local governments under the State industrial relations system;
- modernising the Long Service Leave Act 1958; and
- providing that WAIRC commissioners who qualify for appointment as a magistrate be capable of appointment as an industrial magistrate.
Implications for AREEA members
Given AREEA’s members are private sector employers covered by the Commonwealth’s Fair Work Act 2009, the amendments introduced to WA’s state IR system have generally have little implications for resources and energy employers’ employment arrangements and practices.
Changes to the Long Service Leave Act may have implications for some AREEA members. The changes are intended to clarify a number of entitlements and provide for greater flexibility in how long service leave is taken through:
- enabling an employer and employee to agree to the employee taking long service leave in separate periods of no minimum prescribed length; and
- allowing an employee to request to take long service leave at half pay for twice as long, or at double pay for half as long.
In addition, penalties have been introduced for contravening the LSL Act or failing to keep required employment records relating to long service leave.
For a full summary list of the changes, visit this webpage.
For further information, support and/or to clarify the impact of the Western Australian IR amendment bill, contact [email protected].
