Employment Law And Related Issues

Wages of Junior Employee

Every nation has its a separate law to regulate the relationship of employer and employee. These laws are known as employment law (Legalcareerpath.com, 2019). These laws are significant to review as the same provides rights and liabilities of the employer as well as the employee. Further, the study of these laws becomes more important when there is a conflict between employer and employees in relation to remuneration, wages, overheads, leaves, and termination. In the presented report, two parts of the question will be answered. These questions are related to the employment relationship and will address the various aspects related to the same.

In the given part, Grey Matter Pty. Ltd. is the company, which is having the registered office at Melbourne, Victoria. The company has 374 employees in total and most of the employees are employed at the location of the head office. The company is facing certain issues related to human capital, which is further discussed and answered in the following part. In order to answer the asked questions, the focus will be made on the applicable provision of law. At last, the advice will be granted by using and reviewing the law.

In the given case study, an employer named Tracey Tan wants to have a pay review. She has an age of 19 years and is working as a casual employee in Grey Matter Pty. Ltd. from the last 12 months (hereinafter mentioned as GMP Ltd.). From the date of joining, she is getting wages from $17 per hour. It means at the time of joining she was 18 years old and even after being 19 years old at present she is getting the same pay as earlier. It is given in the case study that provisions of Clerks Private Sector Award 2010 will apply, as no other industrial award is there to cover the employees. Moving the focus towards the provisions of Clerks Private Sector Award 2010, this is to state that clause 16 of this award provide the wages chart (Fwc.gov.au, 2019). The chart appropriately classified the applicable wages for every level and kind of employees. Clause 18 of this award is another significant clause, which prescribes the standard wage rate in cases of junior employees. The term junior employee stands for an employee who has not attained the age of twenty-one years. According to this clause, an employee having an age of 18 years is entitled to receive a 70% amount of wages of a full-time employee of a similar level (Twu.asn.au, 2019). In the case presented hereby, the employee is also a causal employee in addition to being a junior one.

Flexible Working Arrangement for Older Employee

Casual employees are not entitled to receive leaves and other benefits and because of this reason; the same are entitled to get the 25% loading in lieu of the above as mentioned in the clause 12 of this award. In such a manner, Tracey Tan is not only entitled to receive a 70% amount of wages of major employees but is also entitled to get the 25% loading. If to check the amount of wages that Tracey Tan is entitled to receive, her level is required to check first. She is employed as the receptionist and therefore she will be treated as the level 1 employee. In addition to this as she has joined GMP Ltd at the age of 18 years, therefore, will be treated as Level 1—Year 1 employee. In such a manner, the wage rate prescribed for Level 1—Year 1 employee will be applicable. As per the provisions of Clerks Private Sector Award, 2010, the employee was eligible to get the wages by the rate of $13.61 per hour (Ccfqld.com, 2019). Further, in order to check the amount of loading, this is to mention that it calculates as $3.40 per hour. Hence, in total, the wage rate per hour that Tracey Tan was entitled to get is $17.01 ($13.61 + $3.40).

The subjective employee is a junior employee and therefore the slab rate of wages will be applicable till the age of 21 years. In the current year, she is entitled to get the 80% amount of wages. Therefore, her current wage rate should be a total of wages by 80% in addition to 25% loading i.e. a total of $15.55 and $3.88 ($19.43). In actual, she is getting wages by the rate of $17 per hour. In a summarized way, this is to conclude that in the first year of working Tracey Tan was getting almost similar amount she was eligible for. She was receiving an hourly rate of $17 whereas she was entitled to $17.1. However, in the second year of working she is getting a low amount per hour. She is entitled to get the payment by the rate of $19.43 per hour whereas she is getting the same amount as per the last year i.e. $17. This is to say that as the employee is doing and performing well, and completed one year of working, GMP Ltd should re-classify her category to level 2 employee form level 1 employee.

Redundancy and Entitlements

The employee centered in this case is 64 years old. His name is Tom Davis and wants to seek a flexible working arrangement with his employer i.e. GMP Ltd. He wants this flexible arrangement, as he needs to look after his grandson. As per the request made by him, he wishes to be at home one day a week. He is flexible enough about this day and let the employer decided that which day it would be. Again, the provisions of Clerks Private Sector Award 2010 (hereinafter mentioned as an applicable award for this question) will be applicable. Here clause 7 of this award is relevant to review. According to this clause, an employee is entitled to enter into flexible working arrangements (CCH Australia Limited, 2010). Nevertheless, the clause states a certain condition under which the employee can ask for such flexible working arrangements. It means an employee can only ask for the flexible working arrangement scheme if any more or more conditions would be there (Cpaaustralia.com.au, 2019). In addition to this, such agreements can only be made between an employer and employee or to say that the same are specific agreements. According to the requirements of clause 7 of the subjective award, these flexible agreements are required to develop in written mode and in English. Sometimes, an employee does not have a vast knowledge of English, then it becomes the responsibility of the employer to make the arrangement for the translation of agreement in order to make the employee able to understand every bit of the same. Flexible agreements are the need of the issues that employee generally faces during their employment. Such issues are often related to shift timing, loading, amount of wages or allowance. Both the parties of the contract i.e. employer and employee must keep one copy of such agreement with them.

Moving the discussion towards the provided case, Tom Davis wants to develop a flexible working arrangement with GM Pty Ltd. His age is 64 years and it seems to be a valid reason for his request, as he needs to look after his grandson. In addition to this, his request is flexible enough that he has given the employer the option to choose the day for an off. HR Executive of the company should consider his request as he has a valid reason and his request is according to the provisions of clause 7 of the applicable award. As he did not mention the day on which he wants a week off can be decided by the HR executive. Further, the HR executive is also required to comply with the provisions of clause 7. He needs to inform Tom Davis about the approval of his request and to develop the agreement in writing and in English only.

Here to mention that the applicable award does not prescribe the time period by which a request for a flexible arrangement made by the employee should be entertained by the employer. Further, this award also not prescribes the manner of approval of such request. Fair Work ombudsman states that on receipt of a request from the side of the employee, an employer must respond on the same within 21 days, regardless of the approval or refusal of the same (Fair Work Ombudsman, 2019) (a).. In the given case, the HR executive received the request letter 2 weeks ago. It means out of allowed 21 days, 14 days already lapse. In order to advise to the HR department of GM Pty Ltd., this is to state that the departments now only have 7 days to proceed with the request of Tom Davis. It is required to respond in the next 7 days to Tom Davis and request should be approved.

Many of the times, the office of an employee remains no longer useful for the employer, this situation is known as redundancy (Rogers, 2014). In this situation, the employer can offer another designation to the employee. In the case provided hereby employer redundant two of its employees named Patrick Sands and Cheryl Banks. The issue of the case is to check the entitlement of these employees at the event of redundancy. The provisions related to redundancy are mentioned in clause 14 of the Clerks Private Sector Award 2010 (hereinafter mentioned as an applicable award for this question. According to this clause, in those cases where an employer transfer an employee to another designation, a notice is required to be reserved upon (Architeam.Net.Au, 2019). The period of such notice would be the same as required in case of termination of service. In addition to this during the notice period of redundancy, the employer will be liable to give one leave every week to the employee so that he/she can find the new job. This leave must be fully paid (Live Performance Australia, 2019). The applicable award does not provide the provisions related to redundancy pay. These provisions are mentioned in the National Employment Standards (NES) (awardviewer, 2019). As per the provisions of these standards, an employer has responsibility to pay the redundant employee wages by normal rates. The employer is also eligible to redundant an employee without giving prior notice but then in such a situation, the employer becomes responsible to pay additional applicable wages (Seek, 2019). It means in addition to the basic pay of the employee, these additional wages also includes monetary allowance, incentives, overtime wages, penalty rates, and other identified applicable amounts. Employment confirmation is not required for being eligible to get this notice and employees who are in their probation periods are also eligible to receive earlier notice or paid out notice (Fair Work Ombudsman, 2019) (b). Under NES, periods of notice depends on the years of employment. As per this standard, only one-week notice is required in cases of employees who are in service for one year or shorter time. A two-week notice is required for the employees who have completed one year of working but not completed more than 3 years. Further, employees who have not completed the employment tenure of more than 5 years but are in service from more than 3 years are eligible to get a notice 3 weeks in advance. At last, employees are in service for more than 5 years are eligible to receive advance notice of 4 weeks.

Redundancy Pay: According to NES, employees are entitled to receive redundancy pay as follow:-

(Fairwork.gov.au, 2019)

In the given case, Cheryl Banks is employed since 01^st January 2018. She has completed one year of employment. In this manner, she is entitled to one week and redundancy pay of 4 weeks. The employment of another employee Patrick Sands started from3rd February 2015. In this manner, he has completed 4 years of employment. Therefore, he is entitled to get notice of 3 weeks and redundancy pay of 8 weeks.

Ridley Agriproducts Pty Ltd. has been selected as an organization for the purpose of this part of the assignment. It is a private company, which is engaged in the production of primary food in dairy, poultry, pet food, pig, beef, and aquaculture industries (Ridley, 2019). The company provides a vast range of services and products and doing well. The enterprise agreement of the chosen company us very recent and known as Ridley Agriproducts Pty Ltd – Lara – Enterprise Agreement 2019 (Fair Work Commission, 2019). This is a single enterprise agreement for the organization and has been developed considering the provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). The agreement has an exclusive scope. It is applicable to all the employees who are in the service of the company and performing their functions at the company’s office situated at 30, Old Melbourne Road, Lara Victoria-3212. In addition to this, the agreement is also applicable to the employees who are identified in schedule 1 of this agreement. This schedule one provides the classification structure. As mentioned above that the award is exclusive nature and therefore other agreements and awards would not be considered.

In the provided case, a person named Tracey Tan is an employee of Ridley Agriproducts Pty Ltd. She has an age of 19 years and she is employed as a casual employee for 12 months. The issue of the case is to review her situation under Ridley Agriproducts Pty Ltd – Lara – Enterprise Agreement 2019 and to compare the same with clerks Private Sector Award 2010. The chosen agreement does not contain any provision in relation to the junior employees. Here junior employees refer to those who have age below than 21 years. As this agreement has developed according to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), therefore provisions of this act will apply in those cases where chosen agreement is silent. As per section 153 of this act, an employer is not entitled to make the difference between the wages of two employees based on their age (Classic.Austlii.Edu.Au, 2019). Moving towards the issue of the case, this is to say that the company cannot provide low wages to Tracey tan because of her age. The employee is entitled to receive similar wages as other employees who have attained the age of 21 years. Nevertheless, the other factor is also necessary to review. In addition to being a junior employee, Tracey is also a casual employee, which will create a difference in her wages in comparison to other employees. Similar to the clerks award, the chosen enterprise agreement also prescribe the provision of loading in addition to wages. According to the provisions of the chosen agreement, the wages of a casual employee shall be as similar to a full-time employee. In addition to the wages, a casual employee is also eligible for the loading by 25% in replacement of all another advancements that are not available to casual employees. In the given case, the work status of the employee is not mentioned. Assuming her level 1 employee, this is to say that irrespective of the starting date of her employment, she is entitled to get basic wages by $21.53 per hour. Further as mentioned above, she is also entitled to receive $5.3825 (25% of $21.53) in the form of loading. It means in total she is entitled to get wages by an hourly rate of $26.91, but in actual she is only getting $17 per hour. In order to make the comparison, this is to say that according to clerks private sector award Tracey was entitled to get the wages by the rate of $17.01, however according to this enterprise agreement she is entitled to $26.91 per hour and hence to conclude that her condition is beneficial under this agreement.

The chosen enterprise agreement state the time period of notice as well as of redundancy pay. According to this agreement, it becomes the responsibility of an employer to discuss it with the concerned employee before making any decision of redundancy. The time period of notice is given hereunder:-

 Further if to talk about the amount of redundancy pay, this is to state that the same is payable as under:-

In the given case, one of the employees named Cheryl Banks has completed one year of working hence she is entitled to receive Two weeks and redundancy pay of four weeks. Her condition is better under this agreement in comparison to clerks award as she was entitled to get the notice only one week in advance. Moving towards another employee, this is to state that Patrick Sands is employed since 3 February 2015 and completed four years of working. According to this enterprise agreement, he is entitled to receive a notice of Three weeks; the further employer is required to give the redundancy pay of 8 weeks. His situation is equal under this enterprise agreement and under clerks, private sector awards 2010.

Conclusion

In order to conclude this report, this is to state that employment laws are important to regulate the relationship of employer and employee. Employee agreements are a set of rules and regulations, which define the employment relationship and often develops according to employment laws. Different organizations have different agreements and it is the reasonability of employer as well of employee to comply with the same.

References

Architeam.Net.Au. (2019) Clerks Private Sector Award 2010. [online] Available from: https://architeam.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Modern_Clerks_Private_Sector_Award_Text_MA000002_20120701.pdf [Accessed on 09/02/19]

Awardviewer. (2018) Clerks—Private Sector Award 2010 [online] Available from: vhttps://awardviewer.fwo.gov.au/award/show/MA000002 [Accessed on 09/02/19]

Ccfqld.com. (2019) Clerks – Private Sector Award 2010 [MA000002]. [online] Available from: https://ccfqld.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Wage-Rates-Clerks-Private-Sector-Award-2010-1.pdf [Accessed on 09/02/19]

CCH Australia Limited. (2010) Australian Master Fair Work Guide. Australia : CCH Australia Limited.

Classic.Austlii.Edu.Au. (2019) Fair Work Act 2009 – Sect 153. [online] Available from: https://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/fwa2009114/s153.html [Accessed on 09/02/19]

Clerks Private Sector Award 2010

Cpaaustralia.com.au. (2019) Fair Work Act 2009. [online] Available from: https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/~/media/corporate/allfiles/document/professional-resources/practice-management/fair_work_act_faqs_jan_2010.pdf [Accessed on 09/02/19]

Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth)

Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth)

Fair Work Commission. (2019) Decision [online] Available from: https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/documents/agreements/fwa/ae428922.pdf [Accessed on 16/02/19]

Fair Work Ombudsman (a). (2018) Flexible working Arrangments. [online] Available from: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employee-entitlements/flexibility-in-the-workplace/flexible-working-arrangements [Accessed on 09/02/19]

Fair Work Ombudsman (b). (2018) Notice of termination & Redundancy pay. [online] Available from: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/how-we-will-help/templates-and-guides/fact-sheets/minimum-workplace-entitlements/notice-of-termination-and-redundancy-pay [Accessed on 09/02/19]

Fairwork.gov.au. (2019) Notice of termination & redundancy pay. [online] Available from: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/how-we-will-help/templates-and-guides/fact-sheets/minimum-workplace-entitlements/notice-of-termination-and-redundancy-pay#redundancy-pay

Fwc.gov.au. (2019) Minimum weekly wages. [online] Available from: https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/documents/modern_awards/award/ma000002/default.htm [Accessed on 09/02/19]

Legalcareerpath.com. (2019) What Is Employment Law? [online] Available from: https://legalcareerpath.com/what-is-employment-law/ [Accessed on 09/02/19]

Live Performance Australia. (2018) Clerks—Private Sector Award 2010. [online] Available from: https://liveperformance.com.au/sites/liveperformance.com.au/files/resources/ca_award_0.pdf [Accessed on 09/02/19]

Ridley Agriproducts Pty Ltd – Lara – Enterprise Agreement 2019

Ridley, (2018) products. [online] Available from: https://www.ridley.com.au/ [Accessed on 09/02/19]

Rogers, J. (2014) Facing Redundancy: Surviving And Thriving. UK: McGraw-Hill Education.

Seek. (2018) Rights for redundancy. [online] Available from: https://www.seek.com.au/career-advice/rights-for-redundancy Accessed on 09/02/19]

Twu.asn.au. (2019) Clerks—Private Sector Award 2010. [online] Available from: https://twu.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Clerks-Private-Sector-Award-2010.pdf [Accessed on 09/02/19]

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