Wage Provisions
Answer:
Employment Law is a crucial area of study and the same becomes more significant when it comes to the provision related to wages, leaves, overheads, and terminations. In Australia, there are enough laws has made on employment law, which are applicable to organizations according to their applicability and criteria (Mou, 2017). This report would cover the topics related to employment laws and enterprises agreement. As in the provided scenario, Grey Matter Pty. Ltd. (hereinafter referred as GM Pty Ltd.) is a corporation which is in operation since 01st January 2015, having 374 employees employed at it is head office and consists of some issues related to mentioned topics. This report is adhering to advise on the same. Further, the discussion would also focus on the provisions of applicable laws and their applicability in the provided case. In conjunction with, this report would also center the advice and conclusion on the studied cases.
In the provided case, Tracey Tan, who is employed in GM Pty Ltd seeks to pay review. She is in employment as a casual employee for last 12 months and is 19 years old. During the last 12 months of her job, she has been paid by the rate $17 per hour. It may state that at the time of joining the corporation, Tracey Tan was 18 Years old. In the absence of an employment agreement or otherwise, provisions of Clerks Private Sector Award, 2010 will be applicable.
Clause 16 of Clerks Private Sector Award, 2010 provides wage chart which is to be paid to employees and properly classified applicable wages in respect of every level of employee. Further Clause 18 of the said Awards, stipulated the wage rates applicable in case of a junior employee (CCH Australia Limited, 2011) (a). Here junior employee referred to those employees who have not attained the age of 21 years yet (HR advance, 2018). According to Clause 18 of Clerks Private Sector Award, 2010 an employee who is 18 years old; would be granted wages by the rate of 70% of a full-time employee according to his/her level. In the given case Tracey Tan was not only a junior employee but was also a casual employee.
Clause 12 of Clerks Private Sector Award, 2010 provides that a casual employee will be entitled to receive 25% loading in the lieu of leave and other benefits which are not granted to casual employees under this Award Scheme (CCH Australia Limited, 2010) (b). So for this reason, in addition to 70% of wages offered to a major employee, she will also be entitled to receive loading with 25%. The wages Tracey Tan was entitled to are described hereafter. Here Tracey Tan will be treated as an employee of level 1 as she was appointed as the receptionist of the organization. Further, as at the age of 18, she has joined the organization then in such situation she will be classified as Level 1—Year 1 employee. Wage rate of level 1-year 1. According to the provisions of Clerks Private Sector Award, 2010, Tracey Tan was entitled to receive wages according to an hourly rate of $13.61. In addition to this, she was also entitled to get loading at 25% i.e. $3.40 per hour. So, in this manner, the computed per hour wage rate which was applicable to Tracey Tan was $17.01.
Flexible Working Arrangement
As Tracey Tan is a junior, so the slab rate of wages is to increase every year till the she attain age of 21 years. At the next year i.e. in present she is 19 years old, so she will be entitled to receive wages at the rate of 80% of the appropriate wage rate. So, in this manner her basic hourly rate shall be $15.55 in addition $3.88 (loading at 25%). But she is getting wages by the hourly rate $17 even in the second year of her working.
Here in the part of advice, it is to state that the wages, Tracey Tan was getting till last year were adequate, although she was getting $17 for an hour of working whereas she was entitled to receive $17.01. Further, in the second year of working, she is qualified to get additional $2.44 per hour.
In addition to this, as she was performing her job well, GM Pty Ltd. Should transfer the same to Level 2 form Level 1 category.
Here in the given case, the issue is that Mr. Tom Davis, who is an employee of GM Pty Ltd, wants to get enter into a flexible working arrangement with his employer. The reason for his wish is that he needs to take care of his grandson and will not be able to come office that day. Clause 7 of Clerks Private Sector Award, 2010, an employee can enter into flexible workings arrangement (neca.asn.au, 2018). Under the said clause, there some situations are granted in which an employee can request for the same. One of these circumstances is arrangements about when work is to be performed. Further, this clause stated that such agreements can only be developed between a particular employee and employer. It means that these kind of agreements are very specific in nature and depends on the particular situation of an identified employee.
As earlier mentioned that clause 7 of Clerks Private Sector Award, 2010 stipulated the criteria, requirements and results related to flexible working arrangements (CCH Australia Limited. (2010) (c). This section states that such kind of agreements must be in writing and be in only English language. Further, in the cases where an understanding of English an employee is limited, the employer must ensure that the translation of such agreement must be done in an appropriate manner so that employee can understand the same.
The need for such arrangement and agreement comes into the light where employee faces issues in respect of allowance, loading, leaves or timing of work. This is also to mention that such agreement must be in writing, signed by both of the parties such as employer and employee and employee must keep one of the copies of the same with him/her. In the context of given case, it may conclude as that Mr. Tom Davis was a 55 years old employee and has a valid reason to enter into a flexible working agreement, HR Manager is advisable to entertain his request and to inform him about the same. As Tom Davis did not mention a particular day of the week and has given liberty to HR to decide the same, here employer has the proper freedom to decide the weekday according to his requirement as to do work without him is difficult but not impossible.
Redundancy
Clerks Private Sector Award, 2010 is silent about the period and manner in which employer must respond to a request of flexible working arrangement yet Fair Work ombudsman states that an employer on receiving such request must respond within 21 days, whether such request is granted or refuse (Fair Work Ombudsman, 2018) (a). So, if HR Director approves the request of Tom Davis then he must respond in writing in next 7 days, as it has already been 14 days since the subjective request is pending with him.
Redundancy is a circumstance where the office of an employee does not remain of use anymore (tssa, 2018). Although in such circumstance, the employee can go on the different designation if offers by his/her employer. In the given case, the office of two of the employees named Cheryl Banks and Patrick Sands announced redundant by the employer i.e. GM Pty Ltd. Now the issue is that what would be the entitlements, these employees will get in case of mentioned redundancy.
Clause 14 of Clerks Private Sector Award, 2010 provides the provision related to redundancy. Further, this clause states that provisions related to redundancy pay are provided for National Employment standards (awardviewer, 2018). According to Clause 14 of Clerks Private Sector Award, 2010 that if an employee is transferred to any other designation due to redundancy then a notice of same period must be provided to him/her as required in the cases of termination. Further, this clause also stipulated that during the tenure of notice of Redundancy, an employer is forced to pay a paid leave every week to the employee in order to search new job by him/her (Live Performance Australia, 2018).
In addition to aforesaid provision, as earlier stated; rules related to payment of wages during redundancy are mentioned in National Employment Standards. According to these standards, an employer must pay to employee normal wages, who is going to redundant (CWUnion national, 2018). Here the meaning of normal wages are the wages, an employee would get if the same remain in employment. Further; this notice can also be paid out, it means an employer can redundant an employee without prior notice but in such circumstances, he/she shall have to pay applicable wages to the employee (Seek, 2018). These wages will include overtime, penalty rates, incentives, loadings, monetary allowances and other applicable identifiable amounts in addition to employee’s basic wages. Here this is to mention that the employee who is on their probation period, also will be entitled to get noticed or to get be paid out notice (Fair Work Ombudsman, 2018) (b). According to the length of their services. National Employment standards prescribed the following:
|
Period of Service (continuous) |
Minimum Notice Period |
|
1 year or less |
One week |
|
1 year – 3 years |
Two week |
|
3 years – 5 years |
Three Week |
|
More than 5 years |
Four week |
Conclusion
As mentioned in the case, Cheryl Banks has started his employment on 1st January 2018, it is to assume that she was on his probation period and will not be entitled to get redundant payment as she has worked for the organization less than 12 months and in this manner she will only be entitled to receive $ 809.10 for the services she has granted to the company. Further, Patrick Sands is assumed to be level 3 employee due to the tenure of his services and for this reason, the same shall be entitled to receive total pay for 10 weeks’ worth $8456 (Redundancy pay for seven week and notice paid out of three weeks) according to National Employment Standards. Here the calculation was done by considering holidays and week offs.
The selected organization is Ridley Agriproducts Pty Ltd. This organization has formed in the form Corporation and carries out the activities related to dairy Products; the same is a manufacturer of primary food in the poultry, dairy, horse, pet food, beef, pig and aquaculture industries (Ridley, 2018). The purpose to choose the enterprise agreement of this organization was the vast range of provided services and good business structure of the same. Further, since the enterprise agreement of this organization recently comes into effect, it would be easy to understand the applicability and significance of the same. Enterprise Agreement of Ridley Agriproducts Pty Ltd. is known as Ridley Agriproducts Pty Ltd – Lara – Enterprise Agreement 2019 (Fair Work Commission, 2018). This agreement has prepared according to the provisions of Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). Further, this enterprise agreement is single enterprise agreement.
In order to it is applicability and scope, this is to mention that the same will be applicable on all the employees who are designated and in service at company’s premises situated at 30, Old Melbourne Road, Lara Victoria-3212 and on those employees who are classified in schedule 1 (Classification structure) of the subjective agreement. This agreement shall operate to exclusion of all other industrial awards and agreements.
The provided scenario is where Tracey Tan is an employee of Ridley Agriproducts Pty Ltd. (hereinafter called as organization or corporation). Here Tracey tan is 19 years old and is in service of the organization since last 12 months. The lead issue is to evaluate her entitled wages according to the enterprise agreement of Ridley Agriproducts Pty Ltd. and to consider that whether the same is better or worse than the clerical awards.
Chosen enterprise agreement, does not include the provision related to junior employees i.e. the employees who do not attain the age of 21 years yet. As earlier mentioned that the subjective enterprise agreement is based on the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), provisions of this act will apply in this scenario. According to Section 153 of Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), discrimination in the wages cannot be done on the basis of age (Australian Government, 2018). It can understand as an employee shall not be granted lower wages just because of the same is junior in age. So in this context, it may state that the wages will not be affected due to the age of Tracey Tan in the given case. But this is to mention that in addition to being junior in age, she was also a casual employee, not the full-time employee, so her wages will be distinct from a full-time employee, because of this reason.
Ridley Agriproducts Pty Ltd – Lara – Enterprise Agreement 2019 states that a casual employee will be provided the wages as per the rate applicable to a full-time employee and in addition to this the same will also be entitled to get 25% loading in lieu of other benefits not provided to casual employees. Here as about the level of Tracey Tan nothing is mentioned, this is to assume that she was employed as level 1 employee under Stock feed milling stream. So in this context, she was entitled to get $21.53 per hour as basic pay regardless of the starting date of the period of first one year. In addition to this, she was also entitled to get $5.3825 (25% of $21.53) as loading. It may state that in total she was entitled to receive $26.91 per hour. Whereas she was only getting $17 per hour during the first year of her employment, she was receiving lower wages.
Further, as earlier studied in the first part, she was entitled to receive $17.01 per hour, it can conclude here as the wages applicable according to this agreement, is better than the wages provided under Clerks Private Sector Award, 2010.
The issue is to identify the entitlement of Cheryl Banks and Patrick Sands, who are the employees of organization and offices of them are going to terminate due to Redundancy. Here this is also required to compare their situation with Clerical awards.
In order to reply the aforesaid investigation, it may state that according to studied enterprises agreement, the employer first needs to discuss redundancy with proposed affected employees. Further, notice about redundancy shall be given of the period stipulated hereunder:
|
Period of Service (continuous) |
Minimum Notice Period |
|
1 year or less |
One week |
|
1 year – 3 years |
Two week |
|
3 years – 5 years |
Three Week |
|
More than 5 years |
Four week |
In respect to redundancy pay, this is to mention that following schedule will apply:
|
Period of Service (continuous) |
Amount of Redundancy pay |
|
Less than 1 year |
Nil |
|
1 year – 2 years |
Four week |
|
2 year – 3 years |
Six weeks |
|
3 year – 4 years |
Seven week |
|
More than 4 years |
2 weeks per completed year of service up to a maximum of 52 weeks |
So, here it can conclude that Cheryl Banks will not be entitled to get any prior notice and Patrick Sands will be entitled to receive prior notice of at least 3 weeks. Further, in respect to redundancy pay it is to state that Cheryl Banks will not get any amount as the same has not completed the first year of her job and Patrick Sands, will be entitled to get pay for at least 7 weeks i.e. $6365.38 (266*23.93) in addition to $2728 (114*23.93)for paid notice Hourly rate i.e. 23.93 has chosen assuming level 2 employee for 3rd year and it as mentioned in the agreement taken for study and review, weekly hours are taken are 38. Total wages for which Patrick Sands shall be entitled is $9093.4 which is better than clerical awards.
Conclusion
In order to conclude the cases and scenarios, it is to mention that employment law is an area which requires a very attentive approach. The interest of an employee and employer as well depends on each other and this is the reason for which they usually entered into an employment agreement. But in the absence of such agreements, there many of the acts and legislation are exist, which governs the rights and liabilities of employer and employee. Thus, it may state here that this law has it is a significant aspect in the area of law.
References
Australian Government. (2018) Fair Work Act 2009. [online] Available from: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2017C00323 [Accessed on 23/06/18]
Awardviewer. (2018) Clerks—Private Sector Award 2010 [online] Available from: vhttps://awardviewer.fwo.gov.au/award/show/MA000002 [Accessed on 23/06/18]
CCH Australia Limited (a). (2010) Australian Master Fair Work Guide. Australia: CCH Australia, Limited.
CCH Australia Limited (b). (2010) Australian Master Human Resources Guide 2010. Australia: CCH Australia, Limited.
CCH Australia, Limited (c). (2011) Understanding the Fair Work Act. Australia: CCH Australia, Limited.
Clerks Private Sector Award, 2010 [online] Available from: https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/documents/modern_awards/award/ma000002/default.htm [Accessed on 23/06/18]
CWUnion national. (2018) National Employment Standards (NES). [online] Available from: https://www.cwu.org.au/National-employment-standards-NES.html [Accessed on 23/06/18]
Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), [online] Available from: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2017C00323 [Accessed on 23/06/18]
Fair Work Commission. (2018) Decision [online] Available from: https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/documents/agreements/fwa/ae428922.pdf [Accessed on 23/06/18]
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 23/06/18]
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 23/06/18]
HR advance. (2018) Who is considered a junior employee? [online] Available from: https://hradvance.com.au/resources/the-hr-explainer/junior-employee [Accessed on 23/06/18]
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 24/06/18]
Mou, Q. (2017) Australian employment law: 10 key features. [online] Available from: https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/australian-employment-law-10-key-features/ [Accessed on 24/06/18]
neca.asn.au. (2018) Clerks—Private Sector Award 2010. [online] Available from: https://neca.asn.au/sites/default/files/media/state_nsw/Employee%20Relations/Clerks-Private%20Sector%20Award%202010%20(MA000002)%20171213.pdf [Accessed on 24/06/18]
Ridley, (2018) products. [online] Available from: https://www.ridley.com.au/ [Accessed on 23/06/18]
Seek. (2018) Rights for redundancy. [online] Available from: https://www.seek.com.au/career-advice/rights-for-redundancy [Accessed on 24/06/18]
tssa. (2018) Redundancy – a legal definition. [online] Available from: https://www.tssa.org.uk/en/Your-union/your-workplace/employment-rights/redundancy–a-legal-definition.cfm [Accessed on 24/06/18]
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