Legislation Changes set for March 2015

Employment Relations Amendment Act 2014 which will come into force on 6 March 2015. The key changes include:

• Allowing unions and employers to initiate bargaining at the same time and entitling employers to reduce employees' pay in response to partial strikes;
• Providing greater flexibility for employers and employees in respect of the time and duration of rest and meal breaks and introducing compensatory measures where an employer fails to provide a break;
• Extending the right to request flexible working arrangements to all employees and not just those with caring responsibilities;
• A requirement for the Employment Relations Authority to provide written determinations within three months of the completion of the investigation meeting;
• Clarifying (and limiting) the requirement for employers to disclose information pursuant to the duty of good faith in section 4 of the ERA 2000: and
• Requiring the ERA to give an oral determination, or an oral indication of its preliminary findings, at the conclusion of the investigation hearing. It must then follow up with a written determination within three months of the investigation meeting (or receipt of the last information or submissions from the parties, if later).

Some immediate changes you may wish to consider are:

• Removing any reference to the 30-day rule from your employment agreements and negotiating its removal from collective agreements when they are up for renegotiation;
• Removing prescriptive references to breaks in employment agreements for new employees; and
• Look to negotiate with existing employees around possible changes.