Awards
The Workplace Relations Framework should complete the evolution from the centralised system of compulsory conciliation and arbitration of the past and become a truly decentralised system of collective and individual bargaining underpinned by a genuine safety net of simple, legislated minimum standards.
Only industry base rates of pay should be retained in awards as part of a modernised safety net, with parties able to adopt additional terms and conditions of employment by agreement.
Our Policy Objectives:
- Rules that facilitate the efficient structuring of working arrangements at the workplace level.
- Conditions that balance employee protection and the need to increase employment opportunities.
- Simplified obligations that are easy to follow.
- Gradual reduction of compulsory content that ultimately leaves only industry base rates of pay as part of a simplified legislated safety net.
Our Policies:
- Reform the “Modern Awards Objective”.
- Ensure conditions facilitate flexibility and choice for employers and employees.
- Reform penalty rates to better accord with contemporary society and consumer preferences, and to better support job creation and enterprise sustainability.
- Remove restrictions on minimum engagements, roster patterns and part time and casual employment that restrict work opportunities, particularly for young people.