Unions and workplace lawyers gear up for new IR laws

With the introduction of the Rudd Government’s FairWork industrial relations regime just over a week away, workplace lawyers and unions are gearing up for the fight of a decade after 1 July.

Workplace lawyers such as Peter Vitale of CCI Lawyers and Joydeep Hor from Harmers Workplace Lawyers have both reported strong demand from those looking to understand what the new laws mean for their business.

Hor says there is a strong sense of clients being confused and jaded by continual law changes in the area of IR.

“When WorkChoices was introduced, a lot of these companies had to do a lot of work on their contracts and policies. Some of that work has really just been completed. Now they have to do a lot of that work again.”

So far, much of Harmers’ work has been around explaining to clients the intricacies of the new laws, focusing on four key areas: the new Modern Awards system; the new National Employment Standards; changes to good faith bargaining provisions; and new unfair dismissal laws, which removes protection for employers, with 100 employees or less, from unfair dismissal claims.

But despite the changes to unfair dismissal laws, Hor says there has not been a flurry of sackings to beat the 1 July deadline.

“In fact I am surprised by how little of that there has been. The greater issue for most businesses is just survival at the moment.”

Andrew Douglas, director of Douglas Workplace & Litigation Lawyers agrees and says he isn’t seeing a big surge in demand from employers looking to take advantage of the last days of WorkChoices. “The reality is most people are trying to survive the recession and haven’t thought about workplace issues,” he says.

But he has seen a surge in industrial action as unions try to re-assert their authority and increase their profile ahead of the introduction of FairWork. This is particularly prevalent in the building sector, where the Construction, Mining, Forestry and Energy Union has been very aggressive in recent months.

“It’s the one thing I am seeing in my business,” Douglas says. “It’s a much more industrialized environment.

“The disputes that we are seeing at workplaces are being frustrated and delayed, to push them past July 1 and into that new environment.”

Both Hor and Douglas expect to be even busier in July and August, as unions launch a series of test cases to push the boundaries of the new laws.

“I suspect what we are going to see is a conflagration of stuff-ups that are going to end up in new Fair Work Australia [territory] and the courts,” Douglas says.

“Employers are in for a rude shock.”