Insights & News

April 8, 2020

A Bill proposing amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (FW Act) has been introduced into Parliament today, 8 April 2020.

The amendments propose temporary changes to the FW Act to assist employers who qualify for the JobKeeper scheme to deal with the economic impact of COVID-19.

There are three categories of amendments.

1. JobKeeper-enabling stand down
2. Alteration to duties and location of work
3. Agreement to change days of work or take annual leave

JobKeeper-enabling stand down

The JobKeeper enabling stand down provisions allows an employer to alter an employees’ hours of work by directing an employee to:

• not work on a day the employee would usually work
• work for a lesser period than they would ordinarily work on a particular day
• work a reduced number of hours (including no hours).

Any such direction may only occur where it is:

• safe; and
• the employee cannot be usefully employed at their normal days or hours because of changes attributable to COVID-19 pandemic; or government initiatives to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The direction must be in writing and requires the employer to:

• give the employee written notice of the intention to give the direction; and
• provide the notice at least 3 days (or less, by agreement) before the direction is given; and
• consult with the employee (or a representative of the employee) and keep written records of the consultation

The direction will cease to have effect no later than 28 September 2020.

This amendment will not change the hourly rate of an employee subject to a direction.

The JobKeeper enabling stand down direction does not apply to the employee during a period when the employee:

1. is taking paid or unpaid leave that is authorised by the employer; or
2. is otherwise authorised to be absent.

Alteration to duties and location of work

This amendment allows an employer to alter the duties performed by an employee or the location of the employee’s work.

Duties
An employee may be directed to perform alternative duties if the duties are:

• safe;
• reasonable in all the circumstances;
• within the skill and competency of the employee; and
• reasonably within the scope of the business in question

The employee must not earn less than:

• what they are currently earning; or
• the base rate of pay applicable to the duties the employee is performing as set out in an industrial instrument,

whichever is greater.

Location
An employee may be directed to perform duties at a different location where:

• the place is suitable for their duties
• the place does not require unreasonable travel
• the location is safe

A direction to alter duties or location is only reasonable to the extent that it is necessary to ensure the employee’s continuing employment.

Agreement to change days of work or take annual leave

Changing days of work
An employer who qualifies for JobKeeper in relation to an employee and that employee to agree to the employee performing work on different days or at different times during a period.
The agreement is authorised if the employer qualifies for the JobKeeper scheme in relation to that employee; and if

• the performance of the duties on different days or at different times is safe, having regard to the nature and spread of Coronavirus and reasonably within the scope of the employer’s operations; and
• the agreement does not reduce the employee’s number of hours of work compared with the employee’s ordinary hours of work (noting the ability to reduce hours under section 789GDC of the proposed Bill).

Employees must consider and must not unreasonably refuse the employer’s request for agreement to these arrangements. In the absence of an employee’s agreement the matter could be settled by the FWC.
The circumstances of the workplace will inform what is reasonable.

Taking annual leave
An employee can consider their employer’s request for them to take paid annual leave and can agree to take paid annual leave at half pay.

If an employer qualifies for the JobKeeper scheme in relation to an employee, the employee must consider and must not unreasonably refuse the employer’s request to take annual leave, provided that the leave arrangement will not result in a leave balance of less than 2 weeks. In the absence of an employee’s agreement the matter could be settled by the FWC.

Employees and employers can also agree to the employee taking twice as much annual leave at half the employee’s rate of pay for a period.

An employee or employer may seek review of a decision made under the amendment by the Fair Work Commission (FWC). The FWC may review through the usual means including conciliation or arbitration.

Any contravention of the amendments may result in penalties.

For additional information and resources relating to the workplace impacts of COVID-19, visit our COVID-19 Resources page.

Christa Lenard
Partner
+61 2 9169 8404
[email protected]

Sophie Baartz
Associate
+61 2 9169 8416
[email protected]

Xanthe Shaw
Lawyer
+61 8 6381 7055
[email protected]

April 7, 2020

With the outbreak of COVID-19 being labelled the biggest thing to impact Australia’s workforce, employers would be forgiven for assuming that everything else has been on hold.

That is not the case and businesses need to be aware of possible legislative amendments to the New South Wales Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (the Act), made by the Work Health and Safety Amendment (Review) Bill 2019 (the Bill). The Bill, if passed, will implement a number of recommendations outlined in Ms Marie Boland’s review of work, health and safety laws (WHS).

It attempts to strike a balance between the objective of maintaining nationally consistent work health and safety regulation and the NSW Government’s goal of reducing risks to workers’ safety.

Key amendments

Category 1 offences

Currently, in order to obtain a conviction for a Category 1 offence (being recklessness), it must be established that a Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) made a conscious choice to take an unjustifiable risk, which resulted in an injury or death of a worker.

If the Bill is implemented, “gross negligence” will be included alongside recklessness as a fault element. This means that it is no longer necessary for a prosecutor to establish that the PCBU made a conscious choice and, consequently, it will become easier to successfully prosecute a Category 1 offence.

Insurance against WHS fines

The Bill will make it an offence, without a reasonable excuse, to provide, enter into, or benefit from an insurance or indemnity arrangement that covers liability for a monetary penalty under WHS laws. This regulates the longstanding common law public policy position that indemnity ought not be available for a criminal penalty.

There will be a transitional provision which provides that a person does not commit an offence for providing insurance or indemnity, or for taking the benefit of such insurance, if the insurance or indemnity was in force before the commencement date of the Bill and any payment made was not in relation to a penalty for an incident that occurred after the commencement date of the Bill.

Increased maximum penalties

The maximum fine for a category 1 breach will instantly increase from $3 million to $3,463,000 and from $600,000 to $692,500 for an officer (or individual who is a PCBU). This will be the first increase in the maximum penalties of WHS law in NSW since the law was harmonised from 1 January 2012.

The Bill will also increase other penalties arising under the Act, for example:

• All penalties of $50,000 will be increased to $57,500. and
• all penalties of $100,000 will be increased to $115,500.

Clarity surround manslaughter

While NSW does not appear to be following the other States in implementing specific industrial manslaughter provisions, the Bill will insert a note into Part 2 of the Act to make it clear that in certain circumstances the death of a person at work may also constitute manslaughter under the Crimes Act 1900 and may be prosecuted under that Act.

Choice of training

The Bill clarifies that health and safety representatives (HSRs) are entitled to choose their course of training and that the relevant PCBU and the HSR will consult each other about, and agree on, the reasonable costs associated with the training.

Investigative powers of workplace inspectors

The Bill will amend inspector’s powers under the Act to allow an inspector who has entered a workplace to exercise their section 171 investigative powers for up to 30 days.

Timeline for regulators to start a prosecution

The Bill will extend the time in which a person can request a regulator to bring a prosecution from 12 months to 18 months.

Application of the Act to dangerous goods and high-risk plant

The Bill will amend the Act to clarify that the Act applies to dangerous goods and high-risk plant that is stored, operated or used at premises that are not a workplace or for use in carrying out work.

When we will see these changes implemented?

As of 24 March 2020, the Bill had its first reading before the Legislative Council. However, given the uncertainty that follows COVID-19, the changes may not be implemented until late 2020.

These changes will be significant and businesses should use any down time created by the impact of COVID-19 upon their business to review their safety management systems and assess the impact of the proposed changes.

John Makris
Partner
+61 2 9169 8407
[email protected]

Erica Elliott
Special Counsel
+61 2 9169 8409
[email protected]

George Stent
Paralegal

April 2, 2020

What Should you Be Doing?

We all know that the possibility of COVID-19 infection is a real one.

We also know that it is a workplace risk that needs to be managed by employers and Persons Conducting Businesses or Undertakings (PCBUs).

The risk controls we need to develop and implement may be COVID-specific, but the way we go about identifying, assessing and eliminating or minimising them is the same way in which the safety laws require us to tackle any other workplace risks.

So, you should be (at least) doing the following on a regular basis:

1. Comply with Government directives and advice

As a first and minimum step, your business should comply with national and state public health directions relating to COVID-19.

They are available on the Departments’ websites and you should check them frequently to make sure you are working with the most current information.

Current measures you should be taking include:

• Reducing direct contact between workers and other persons, including:
  • Social distancing of at least 1.5 metres (and 1 person per 4sqm indoors),
  • Barriers or spacing between workstations, seated areas, etc.,
  • Modifying shifts and rosters to reduce peak periods,
  • Supporting flexible work arrangements where possible, including working from home.
• Reducing environmental exposure, including:
  • Frequently cleaning and disinfecting of high traffic areas and shared surfaces,
  • Providing appropriate cleaning products and instructions for cleaning workspaces,
  • Providing amenities for personal hygiene and infection control,
  • Inspecting and reviewing air conditioning and ventilation systems.

2. Keep consulting

Your business must assess the risks of COVID-19 in consultation with workers, particularly when devising and implementing control measures to minimise the spread of the virus.

You should also be consulting with the people with whom you share a duty to keep your workers and workplaces safe, such as building managers, co-commercial tenants and (potentially) landlords.

We’re all in this together.

3. Don’t forget regulator notifications

Remember that PCBUs and employers may have notification requirements to safety regulators where any confirmed or uncontrolled exposure to serious illness, including COVID-19, occurs or where workers are admitted as in-patients in hospital as a result of exposure in the workplace.

4. Make sure what you’re doing is working

We all need to be regularly assessing the effectiveness of what we are doing to contain COVID-related infection risks in the workplace.

Keep up to date with Government advice.

Keep talking to your colleagues and fellow duty-holders.

Our best resources are our public health authorities. Listen to them and do what they tell you to do. The safety regulators are following their guidance and expect businesses and workers to do the same.

Not everyone is coming into the workplace now

That’s just where we are now.

You should be providing clear direction and guidance to workers about what is expected of them in terms of:

• Knowing when to stay away from the workplace,
• What they need to do if they become unwell,
• What symptoms they need to know about,
• Maintaining a safe working environment at home (we’ve put together a checklist of things to think about and you can access it here).

If people are coming into work you need to make sure that they have access to a hygienic workplace and that they maintain social distancing when they are at work.

Hygienic practices to be reinforced include:

• Frequent and thorough hand washing,
• Actively encouraging social distancing (including limiting access to other people in the workplace),
• Covering mouths while coughing or sneezing,
• Staying away from the workplace if they are unwell and encouraging them to seek medical advice.

Please remember that some members of your workforce will have different infection risk profiles and you need to pay special attention to keeping them safe.

Workers over 60 and indigenous workers over 50 can be more susceptible to infection and/or less able to fight off the virus if they catch it.

The same goes for people with compromised immune systems or chronic illnesses.

Workers from non-English speaking backgrounds may need access to translated material. Use available pictorial resources to get the message across.

You need to properly assess the risk of infection for your specific workers and that the measures you take to keep them safe are targeted to their specific circumstances.

Also remind workers that they have a duty to take reasonable care for their own health and safety.

The safety laws provide that workers have a right to cease, or refuse to carry out work, if they have a reasonable concern that carrying out work would expose them to an immediate or imminent risk of COVID-19. That worker must, however, remain available to carry out suitable alternative work, e.g., work from home. Where such work is not available, PCBU’s and employers may exercise their rights to ask workers to take leave or stand down workers where appropriate.

On our website you can access our COVID-19 Critical Information for Employers for each State and Territory together with our infographic factsheets.

Are your workers at home OK?

Most of us are working from home and we all know that presents unique challenges that we have to overcome.

Keeping track of workers’ mental health is one such challenge and it needs to be one of your priorities.

Most people are worried about their children, their jobs, their mortgages and rents, whether they are feeling hot or tired because they’re sick and even just how they are going to fill in today and tomorrow.

Keep talking to your workers. Let them know they are being heard and that they are front of mind.

Talk to them about how work will be conducted differently to reduce infection risk and facilitate flexibility and consider work modifications to help workers manage their workload and family and carer responsibilities.

Give them information about their entitlements that they can access where they are caring for family members or become unwell with COVID-19.

Be open and transparent about how COVID-19 risks may impact upon their working arrangements.

Remind your workers that they are valued and that what happens to them and their families matters to all of us.

Encourage discussions to let workers to share and learn from others.

Make EAP and support services available and let your colleagues know how to access them.

Encourages workers to stay connected through regular communication, e.g., by phone or videoconferencing. Consider practical measures such as daily catch-ups.

Be aware of behaviour and communication changes in workers and recognise signs that may indicate someone is struggling.

Encourage work breaks and physical activity as permitted by law.

There’s lots we can do to help each other, so let’s get out there and do it.

We have prepared an example Checklist for Working at Home which can be adapted to your specific circumstances to makes sure you and your workforce are assessing the risks of working at home.

What happens if a colleague is infected?

There are no specific provisions in the safety legislation that deal with when a PCBU or employer may direct a worker to stay away from their usual place of work.

PCBUs and employers should, however, ensure that a worker confirmed to have COVID-19 does not return to work while they are infectious or as otherwise directed by health authorities.

Make sure that you have consulted with your workers about what you’ll each do if someone at work becomes infected with COVID-19.

This isn’t about workplace politics or IR issues. This is about all of us doing our part to make sure we stay safe.

Prepare and follow your Pandemic Plan

Businesses should also develop a pandemic plan in consultation with workers.  That plan should cover:

• Prevention and preparedness,
• Response – initial action,
• Response – targeted action, and
• Recovery

Please see our COVID-19 page on our website for further information on pandemic plans.

Please contact us if you have any questions as to how to address COVID-19 risks in your workplace.

March 31, 2020

On 26 March 2020, an application to vary the Clerks – Private Sector Award 2010 (Clerks Award) was made jointly by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Australian Industry Group (Application).

The Application was supported by the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Australian Services Union, and heard on an urgent basis and the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission (Full Bench) issued its decision and determination varying the Clerks Award on 28 March 2020 which may be viewed in full here.

From 28 March 2020, a new Schedule I will be inserted into the Clerks Award. Schedule I will remain operative only until 30 June 2020, but this period can be extended on application to the Fair Work Commission.

What are the variations?

The temporary variations are substantially directed to providing increased flexibility around how work may be performed, and how employees may take or be directed to take annual leave as businesses grapple with the impacts of COVID-19.

These temporary variations are:

• An employer may direct employees to perform all duties within their skill and competency, regardless of classification.
• The minimum period of engagement of part-time and casual employees who are working from home with the agreement of their employer may be reduced from 3 hours to 2 hours.
• The spread of ordinary hours for dayworkers (being employees other than shift workers) working from home has been extended to 6am and 11pm Monday to Friday, while ordinary hours for Saturday will remain as between 7am and 12.30pm Saturday.
• An employer and its full-time and part-time employees in a workplace or section of a workplace may agree, by ballot with 75% approval by employees, to temporarily reduce the ordinary hours of work for a specified period between 28 March 2020 and 30 June 2020, but must not be reduced to fewer than 75% of the full time ordinary hours for a full time employee, or 75% of the part-time employee’s agreed hours immediately prior to the implementation of reduced hours. The employee’s hourly rate must be maintained but the weekly wage will reduce by the same proportion.
• An employer cannot unreasonably refuse an employee’s request to engage in reasonable secondary employment, and must consider all reasonable employee requests for training, professional development and/or study leave.
• Employers and individual employees can agree to take up to twice as much annual leave at a proportionately reduced rate for all or part of any agreed or directed period away from work, including a close-down.
• An employer may direct employees, subject to considering the employee’s personal circumstances, to take any annual leave that has accrued by giving at least 1 weeks’ notice or any shorter notice period agreed. An employee must not be left with less than 2 weeks accrued annual leave after taking the leave.
• An employer may, for a period between 28 March 2020 and 30 June 2020 require an employee to take annual leave as part of a close-down, or unpaid leave if the employee has insufficient accrued annual leave for all or part of the close-down, upon at least 1 weeks’ notice or a shorter period that may be agreed.
• All unpaid leave will count as service for the purposes of relevant award and NES entitlements.

Could other modern awards be varied in a similar manner?

Yes, on 30 March 2020, Restaurant & Catering Industrial, with the consent of the United Workers Union and the Australian Council of Trade Unions made an application to temporarily vary the Restaurant Industry Award 2010 to provide for temporary flexibilities to assist businesses and employees to respond to mandatory closures of sit down restaurant businesses.

This application comes after temporary variations were made to the Hospitality Industry Award 2010 on 24 March 2020.

Given the current extraordinary impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on business, it is likely that further applications with bipartisan support between employer and employee organisations will be favourably received by the Commission.

Katie Sweatman
Special Counsel
+61 3 9958 9605
[email protected]

March 5, 2020