August 18, 2011 
Are you having difficulties in your work force – Perhaps your
manager might not be following the correct policy and procedures around your
current work location?
Well trust us, you are not alone. Many mangers these days are on
thin lines when it comes to work place health and safety. Correct Policy and Procedures
and even down to the work place bullying on staff or around current employees.
With this current rise in work place rights being abused we have
taken the time to source all current known information freely available on the
internet and placed it into a small open source location for you to view the
information easily.
In this article you will be able to find a few main tips and
articles from Fair Work Australia and Industry commission involving: Threatened with losing
your job, Sick leave, Overtime, Discrimination and Making a workplace complaint.
Threatened with losing your job
It’s illegal for an employer to threaten an employee with dismissal to force the employee to:
- do something they are entitled to do under a Commonwealth workplace law, agreement or order
- not do something they are entitled to do under a Commonwealth workplace law, agreement or order
- exercise a workplace right in a particular way
Sick leave
Sick leave is leave that employees can take when they can’t attend work because they are sick or injured.
Sick leave is a type of personal leave under the National Employment Standards (NES).
Under the NES full time employees are entitled to 10 days’ paid personal leave (for sick and paid carer’s leave) per year. Part-time employees receive a pro-rata entitlement to sick leave based on the number of hours they work. Paid personal leave accumulates from year to year.
For employees covered by an award or agreement (including transitional award or agreement based instruments), cashing out of paid personal/carer’s leave (such as sick leave) is permitted if all of the following apply:
- the award or agreement allows it
- there must be a separate agreement in writing on each occasion that leave is cashed out
- the employee must retain a balance of at least 15 days of untaken paid personal/carer’s leave
- the employee must be paid at least the full amount that would have been payable had the employee taken the leave that the employee has cashed out.
An employer must not exert undue influence or undue pressure on an employee to cash out a period of personal/carer’s leave.
Overtime
Overtime is often defined in an award or agreement as time worked in excess of 38 hours or outside of ordinary hours. It could be defined differently in a relevant award or agreement so you should check to see what applies to you.
For example, if an employee does not normally work at weekends or late at night as part of their ordinary hours of work, and are required to work at these times, they may be entitled to be paid extra money. Overtime work is often paid at a higher rate of pay. This will be detailed in the relevant award or agreement.
Sometimes overtime entitlements don’t apply to part-time and casual workers until after they have worked the same number of hours as a full-time worker.
In other cases, instead of receiving overtime payments, employees may be able to take time off to make up for the extra time you have worked. This is called “time in lieu”. Check your award or agreement to see what applies in your case.
Overtime entitlements in modern awards are not covered by the model transitional provisions. Therefore, overtime entitlements under these awards commenced operation on 1 January 2010. For details of your overtime entitlements, find your modern award.
Discrimination
Discrimination & adverse action
There are laws to protect employees and prospective employees from job-related discrimination.
It is essential that employers are aware of this issue and provide a workplace that is discrimination-free.
What is discrimination?
Under Commonwealth workplace law, an employer must not take ‘adverse action’ (as set out below) against any employee or prospective employee because of the following attributes:
- race
- colour
- sex
- sexual preference
- age
- physical or mental disability
- marital status
- family or carer’s responsibilities
- pregnancy
- religion
- political opinion
- national extraction
- social origin.
What is adverse action?
The following are all examples of adverse action when taken because of any of the above attributes:
- dismissing an employee
- damaging an employee’s ability to do their job
- changing an employee’s job to their disadvantage
- treating one employee differently from other employees
- refusing to employ a potential employee
- not offering a potential employee all the terms and conditions normally in a job.
Making a workplace complaint
You can make a workplace complaint to the Fair Work Ombudsman if you believe you aren’t getting the correct:
- pay
- conditions (e.g. annual leave or sick leave)
- workplace rights (e.g. someone tried to force you or has forced you to sign an agreement).
You can also make a workplace complaint if you think your employer (or prospective employer) is discriminating against you.
Fair Work Australia
Industrial Commission
