A Fair Work Bill Action Plan
1. Review existing workplace arrangements to assess the impact that National Employment Standards might have on your business.
2. Consider acting now to place employees currently on Australian Workplace Agreements on employee collective agreements. Determine to what extent you may be able to take advantage of the ‘high-income’ employee award exclusion in respect to some or all of these employees.
3. Plan to have in place sufficient business resources to enable you to adequately prepare for the bargaining process in order to achieve desired outcomes if bargaining after 1 July 2009.
4. Identify which unions may have the right to represent the industrial interests of all employees in your business. Get a head start with an early understanding of how new union rights of entry may be exercised after the commencement of the Fair Work Act.
5. If you are planning to purchase or sell a business after 1 July 2009, ensure that you understand the new transmission of business provisions.
6. Make sure you are informed of the award modernisation processes that are occurring so that you can plot an appropriate course for your business, as more details become available.
7. Ensure managers are sufficiently informed about the changes that are occurring to avoid unintentional breaches of general employee protections.
