ER Strategies is 10 Years Old Today
You are here:ER Strategies started in business on 1 July 1999. Director Steve Champion reflects on changes in the employee relations environment over the 10 year period, and what he sees as the major change introduced by the Fair Work Act which commenced operation today.
1 July 2009 marks 10 years since ER Strategies started trading. Today also ironically marks the start of the Fair Work Act.
ER Strategies Director Steve Champion reflected on changes that have occurred in our industrial relations system over the 10 year period. "The laws change - too frequently at times - but the real fundamentals remain the same. People's behavior, what motivates them and what they fear, remain pretty much a constant, although of course most are a lot more cautious about changing jobs in the current economic climate.
"What we pride ourselves on is using our intuition gained through experience over many years, to work out what feels right and what doesn't. Things that don't feel right have a fairly consistent pattern of going pear-shaped, often at great cost. Employers who ignore those signals end up costing themselves dearly in the longer term, even if they escape consequences in the short term".
He says that give an offended employee enough motivation, they can use the legal system, or other less direct means such as 'workplace stress' claims, to get back at their employer, even if they don't have access to tribunals for actions such as unfair dismissals. He also says this is a prime reason to ensure you treat all employees with a minimum of fairness, and ends up providing a financial return on doing so.
He sees good faith bargaining as one of the major tidal changes introduced by the Fair Work Act. See separate article.
