ER Strategies Director Steve Champion sees the new good faith bargaining requirements as being one of the more important changes introduced by the Fair Work Act , and one that is likely to be seen as a turning point in the Australian Industrial Relations system in years to come.

Award and Enterprise Agreement flexibility provisions are to be inserted into all awards and enterprise agreements to increase individual flexibility - but they may have unexpected impacts on the overaward area for the unwary.

The Fair Work Act will significantly change the employment conditions that apply when an employee 'transfers' in their employment to a new employer, where they are employed within 3 months.

Union rights to enter employer premises have been strengthened under the Fair Work Act. If Right of Entry is an issue for you, read on.

We continue our series of articles on the changes to our Federal IR system. this article explores the implications for workplace agreements and enterprise bargaining.

In this section, we look at the major aspects of the NES - the National Employment Standard which replaces the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard introduced by Work Choices.

Payment for work on a public holiday for most employees is dependent on things like award or enterprise agreement provisions. We stress that it is therefore hard to generalise about public holidays, but here is some information about Easter Saturday and Anzac Day in 2009. 

If, like us, you turn slightly bleary-eyed when you think about the proposed next phase of changes to our industrial relations system to be introduced by the Fair Work Bill, you might find our 'Need to Know' summary of the Act is just the ticket.

100 employee exemption gone for SMEs; small employers must meet Fair Dismissal Code when dismissing; new employee protections introduced; and more.

The 6 month qualifying period has been retained. Unfair dismissal applications must be lodged within 7 days, but this is likely to be changed to 14 days by the time it becomes law.

The Fair Work Bill represents a significant change for SMEs in that they will once again be subject to unfair dismissal laws. 

As with employers with 15 to 100 employees, the area of unfair dismissals is being re-regulated for smaller employers. However, they will have a slightly different regime to comply with, compared with larger employers.

If you are about to embark on some important enterprise bargaining negotiations and don't know where to start, or alternatively want to think about how you can do it better, you should find our Enterprise Bargaining flowchart of great benefit

Are you becoming blind to OHS hazards around your workplace? For a very small investment, you can have our experienced safety auditors give you an outsider's view of your hazards.

A client has raised an interesting situation involving people speaking in a language other than English in the workplace. Whose rights do we trample? Join our forum on the topic.

The Workplace Relations Minister, Julia Gillard, has released details about the Government's intentions for further changes to our Industrial Relations laws.

Recent amendment to the Victorian Public Holidays Act includes a change which will soon impact across the whole of the State.

'Modern' Awards might come at a heavy cost for employers - and the economy.

In this article, we review Labor's recently introduced 'transitional' industrial relations legislation. It is transitional because this is not the end of the changes to our workplace relations laws...

Do employers need to rush to implement changes under the old rules, before everything changes? Well, yes and no, depending on whether you've used AWAs before. If not, then we wouldn't suggest you change course now... Read on for details and our analysis of Forward with Fairness, Labor's future plan for industrial relations.