New national workplace relations system simpler
Julia Gillard
posted Sunday, 3 January 2010
On the first day of Fair Work Week, the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard has visited Linfox in Sydney to talk about the new simpler national workplace relations system.
The move to a national workplace relations system will mean everyone in the Linfox supply chain will now be covered by the same workplace laws.
Previously, businesses which operated across State and Territory borders were forced to comply with different workplace relations laws in each jurisdiction.
Fair Work will end this overlap, complexity and duplication in workplace relations that has plagued Australian business and the Australian economy for decades.
Following the award modernisation process, there are also now just 3 modern awards which apply to the road transport industry.
The Road Transport and Distribution Award 2010, the Road Transport (Long Distance Operations) Award 2010 and the Transport (Cash in Transit) Award 2010) replace 74 old state and federal awards containing 3906 pages of regulation.
The 3 modern transport awards now contain 114 pages of regulation; approximately a 97 per cent reduction.
Nationally, almost 4000 awards and industrial instruments have been reduced to 122 modern, simple awards.
Award modernisation has reduced approximately 197 000 pages of regulation to 5753 pages.
New research released recently estimates that the national system will save the Australian economy around $4.8 billion over the next decade.
The analysis, conducted by Access Economics, found that moving to a single national workplace relations system for the private sector will reduce compliance costs and increase productivity.
The Howard Government promised but failed to deliver a national workplace relations system in over a decade in power.
The Liberal Party is so out of touch with the needs of the modern Australian economy, it opposed the creation of a national workplace relations system for the private sector in the Australian Parliament.
Fair Work is the workplace relations system we need for the long term prosperity of the nation.
Tags: Economy, Employment, Fair Work, Jobs, Reform, Workplace