Blog

For those who are not aware of what a Modern Award is - A Modern Award is a document which sets out the minimum terms and conditions of employment on top of the National Employment Standards (“NES”).

Modern Awards provide entitlements such as pay, hours of work, rosters, breaks, allowances, penalty rates and overtime.  There are more than 100 industry or occupation awards that cover most people who work in Australia.

The Albanese Labor Government introduced the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023 (the “Bill”) to Parliament yesterday afternoon (4 September, 2023).  The Bill is the “third tranche” of major changes to core aspects of our workplace relations system which will impact most sectors of the economy.

The Albanese Government will be introducing a third tranche of IR legislation on Monday afternoon which Workplace Relations Minister, Tony Burke has referred to as the “Closing Loopholes Bill”.

You may have seen that there have been a number of significant changes happening in the employment and industrial relations law space. 

We have been hearing from countless employers that the number of changes have left them feeling overwhelmed and unsure about what they need to be doing to ensure compliance. 

There have been a number of important case developments in the employment law space recently. 

The Fair Work Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Act 2022 came into force on 7 December 2022 –introducing the most significant changes to industrial relations laws in Australia in nearly 2 decades.

As the name of the Act suggests, the new changes are geared towards improving pay conditions, pay equity and job security.