Information about the Inquiry
On 25 November
2008, the Senate referred the provisions of the Fair Work Bill 2008
to the Senate Standing Committee on Education,
Employment and Workplace Relations for report by
27
February 2009.
The
purpose of the IR Bill is to create a new framework for workplace
relations to commence on 1 July 2009. It will:
-
establish a guaranteed
safety net of minimum terms and conditions;
-
ensure that the safety
net cannot be undermined by the making of statutory individual agreements;
-
provide for flexible
working arrangements;
-
recognise the right to
freedom of association and the right to be represented in the workplace;
-
provide procedures to
resolve grievances and disputes;
-
provide effective
compliance mechanisms;
-
deliver protections from
unfair dismissal for all employees;
-
emphasise enterprise
level bargaining underpinned by good faith bargaining obligations and
rules governing industrial action; and
-
establish a new
institutional framework to administer the new system comprising Fair Work
Australia and the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The committee
invites written submissions which should be sent to:
Committee
Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
The closing date for submissions is
Friday, 9 January
2009.
The committee
requests that where possible, submissions should be provided by email to
eewr.sen@aph.gov.au preferably as MS Word or RTF format documents.
Notes to assist in preparing submissions are available from the website
https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm.
Once the
committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential committee
document. Release of your submission without the committee's permission
will remove the protection of parliamentary privilege. The committee
normally makes submissions public. Please indicate if you want your
submission to be kept confidential.
Inquiries from
hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to the Parliament
House TTY number (02 6277 7799). Adobe also provides tools for the
visually impaired to access PDF documents. These tools are available at:
http://access.adobe.com/. If
you require any special arrangements in order to enable you to participate
in a committee inquiry, please contact the secretary.
For further information, contact:
Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia