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Next one I wanted to talk to you about is we’ve spoken to clients

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who have previously undertaken a similar process in the past and feel like

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their workplace relations were reviewed no matter how comprehensive it was done.

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And it may be done by a specialized HR person,

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but they feel like it’s a set and forget project.

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Once it’s done that’s it I can forget about it forever.

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But as I understand it, legislation and modern awards are constantly changing.

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And with the awards there were some big changes

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beginning in 2020, which I understand is still taking place today.

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Do you have any insights that you can share on that?

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Well, yeah, the

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the modern awards, when they were made in 2010, were actually meant

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to go through a 4 yearly updating process.

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They realized how big of a task that was at the 4 year stage,

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and they didn’t actually release their first major

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updates until 2020 period.

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They have scrapped the 4 year update model they are slowly working through

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the majority of the awards.

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Most of them have the 2020 title on them at the moment.

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You might find a few small ones out there still, such

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as Hair and Beauty, which is 2010.

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But it doesn’t mean that these awards won’t get an update

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or haven’t had updates.

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The Fair Work Ombudsman actually Fir Work Commission

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from precedent cases or applications made to the Commission.

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Update them all the time though, and it’s

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one thing to understand that the award that would cover your business now

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or has covered traditionally covered your business, but it’s something

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the businesses should at least review yearly on every financial year

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or when they’re specifically working with a specific clause

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such as meal breaks or how overtime may apply, that

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they just refresh themselves with that specific caluse in the award

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because it could have got a mid year update or case

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or precedent could have pushed through a change to the Fair Work Commission.

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The SCHADS Award had another big update

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just recently where they’ve gone through and changed a lot of mechanics

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and the way things worked and tried to put in a lot more into plain

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English to make it more understandable.

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A lot of awards recently.

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The 2020 update also got

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tables, put in them about minimum rates of pay or common allowances

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throughout the award to make them a lot more clearly identifiable.

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And we have to put all these together for either annualised salary

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or just common law, salary arrangements.

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Yeah. That’s a lot of changes.

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I know.

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The but the SCHADS Award is your favorite.

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We work with a lot of not for profit organizations.

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And basically so we’re dealing with this award quite often.

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And yeah, it’s one of the more challenging ones.

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Well, I

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was going to say this is basically 4 awards all mushed together.

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So that’s what makes it more complex.

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You’ve got to understand which which segment of the award

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are you thinking about and how it applies to the industry that you’re in.

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And I think that’s is the most complex piece about it,

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is that you’ve got to understand your stream

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and then which clauses relate to which stream.

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That’s why it’s complicated in some cases, not to mention the application schedule.

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Makes sense.

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I’m glad it’s you not me going through that.

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The other the other thing that’s, I think staying well reported in the media

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around change has been there’s been some significant changes

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in regards to the casualization of the workforce.

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We’ll have casuals a deal t with.

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I guess in the media they’re reporting that as as a country

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we’re becoming a little bit more casualised in terms of our workforce

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and associated changes have been made.

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Do you have any

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anything that you can share around some of the changes that have happened

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with casual employees and things that businesses

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need to be aware of that’s covered in our workplace relations review?

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Well, we’ve gone through a lot of changes with the casualization,

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and when we talk about casualization, it’s basically

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the government want to secure work for Australians as best as possible.

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They always look at that unemployment rate

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and they’re trying to secure permanent employment as best as possible.

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We haven’t gone through all of our casual legislation changes.

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There’s wind that there’s more coming through with some of the promises

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the current government has made that they will be trying to have a look

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at that system again and ensure that it’s meeting

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the needs of Australia as best as possible.

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It could be rolling back some of the current changes

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or even implementing new ones.

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And it’s not just for casual workers, it’s also going to affect fixed term

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contracts and successive rolling contracts going back to back.

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So with that changing

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space, we just have to

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look at what the precedents are and ensure that from the current standards

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and the changes that we went through in the last few years with casuals that

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we’re putting together, the best clauses that are ultimately possible

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for the business.

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I was just speaking to a client yesterday about casual loading

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being one very specific piece and how we reported on payslips

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and whether or not if it’s separately identifiable

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and if it is and we can clearly identify how much the vcasual loading is

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and if an employee’s ever deemed to not be casual, well,

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that’s a good opportunity there for recourse to be able to recall that

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if employees is ever deemed permanent.

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I think all of that is a really good advertisement

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of why the workplace relations review is not simply set and forget.

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I know with the casual I guess changes just as an example,

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they’ve gone from at one point from a common law definition

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to a casual employee across to it being legislated in the Fair Work Act.

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And now it sounds like potentially the current federal government

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are looking to change it back and that’s just a really good example.

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Why you can’t simply put something in place and leave it in place

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for ten years and then dont look at it again