Starting August 26, Australian small businesses will face significant challenges due to sweeping changes in industrial relations (IR) laws. Many businesses are unprepared for the full impact of this government-driven overhaul.
These changes impact casual employment, rights to transition to part or full-time, employment communication restrictions, and most critically, sweeping changes to union powers that businesses must adhere to inside their own offices and facilities.
Under the Fair Work Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Act, employees of a company may become delegates or representatives of a union within their industry.
This title then grants such employees, as a union delegate, far greater powers to take over employer offices and hijack facilities to conduct activities on their union’s behalf, potentially opening up industries including Western Australia’s Pilbara iron ore region to new labour claims at a time they can least afford it.
Legal Scholar, Ph.D. in Law, and ActiumAI Founder, Dr David Millhouse says: “With IR laws becoming increasingly complex, the burden of compliance continues to be pushed onto Australian organisations – many of which are underprepared, aren’t aware of the implications, and lack the legal resources to respond.
“This could lead to millions of dollars in penalties, fines, and reputational damage for small businesses, threatening to drown Australia’s business community in compliance regulation.”
According to the Fair Work Ombudsman, “Delegates have the right to represent the industrial interests of union members and potential members.”
“Furthermore, these elected employees (delegates) “are entitled to access to the workplace and facilities to represent those interests.”
Such entitlements include access to workplace facilities to hold union meetings and information seminars, along with being entitled to attend certain high-level management meetings.
Significantly, the new laws entitle delegate employees to attend high-level internal management meetings almost regardless of their position in the company.
They are entitled to take part in consultation meetings about major workplace changes, consultation on roster changes, enterprise bargaining, disciplinary processes, resolving individual or collective disputes, and any process or procedure which is covered in an award, enterprise agreement or workplace policy related to employees’ workplace rights.
Failure to adhere to these complex new union entitlements could see employers punished and penalised.
Penalties can be levied for infringements such as leaving the meeting room locked during lunch hours, having meetings about workplace changes without inviting the employee delegate, or changing employee working hours without consultation.
The widespread potential impact of such changes reflects the size of Australia’s small business sector. Accounting for 98% of all businesses, Australia’s 2.5 million small businesses provide jobs for 5.1 million people and account for a third of the nation’s GDP, according to a 2023 report by the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman.
Dr Millhouse’s Australian-based company, ActiumAI which builds “Firms of the Future,” works tirelessly to help companies reduce the risks of non-compliance with its dedicated modern AI embedded robotics and linguistics engineering.
“These new IR laws span 700 pages, making them extremely difficult to navigate without professional advice,”
“ActiumAI uses real-time compliance testing to enable firms to effectively implement these changes and remain compliant, avoiding the threat of costly penalties or other actions,” he says.
ActiumAI transitions companies to becoming Firms of the Future, by implementing corporate strategies and tailored technologies to safeguard each business, ensure compliance, facilitate process and workplace automation and boost productivity.
“ActiumAI gives organisations an advantage across all areas of their business, including maintaining legal compliance,”
“Through dedicated corporate strategies and advantage context-specific technologies, we’ve helped companies avoid company-ending penalties, stay compliant, improve compliance, and boost productivity,” Dr Millhouse said.
