Fair Work Bill passes both Houses; draft transitional legislation released
You are here:The Fair Work Bill looks set to start operation in accordance with the Federal Government's planned timetable from 1 July 2009, after a Senate deal saw the legislation pass through both Federal Houses on Friday 20 March.
Despite a raft of 'fine-tuning' changes emanating from all-sides of political parties, the Government's original draft legislation remains largely intact.We will include an update on these late changes as we continue our series on the "Need to Know" aspects of the new Fair Work legislation.
Transitional Legislation Draft Released
To add to the mountain of changes we need to come to terms with, the Government also released for review 300 pages of its first pass of the important transitional arrangements under which employers need to phase from the current legislative framework, to the new Fair Work Act when it is introduced.
For example, there was debate about whether the Government would agree to Union demands to terminate all old agreements entered into under Work Choices. In particular, whether there would be a so-called "drop-dead" clause for Australian Workplace Agreements and other collective agreements entered into under the Howard Work Choices legislation.
However, thankfully the Government did not accede to these requests and instead has permitted old agreements to continue, subject to meeting the minimum standards imposed by the National Employment Standards (NES) - see separate article - and also minimum wages imposed by the new modern awards system. Where an agreement doesn't meet these minimum standards, then the minimum standard will apply in place of the agreement provisions.
We will also provide an update on these transitional arrangements in a later article.
