Understanding Clerks Private Sector Award 2010 And Enterprise Agreement In Australia

This assessment will involve demonstrating your understanding of the first five topics covered within this course.

Part A

Your task is to find and review the Clerks Private Sector Award 2010, and answer three questions relating to a typical human resources related matter.

Part B

Your task is to select an Australian organisation which operates an enterprise agreement governing all or a part of its workforce. You will then answer three questions relevant to that agreement.

Examples of organisations include:

? An Australian bank;
? A retailer;
? A manufacturer;
? An organisation which you currently, or previously, have worked for.

1.As stated by section 18 of the Clerks—Private Sector Award 2010, junior employees in the organization has right to get the minimum amount of wages stipulated by the Clerks—Private Sector Award 2010. This section further states that junior employee has right to get the following percentage in context of the appropriate wage rate stated in the clause 16:

Clause 16 of this award defines the minimum wages on week basis, and as per this clause:

It must be noted that on the basis of above facts it can be said that junior (part time or full time employee) of 19 years age has right to get following wages on hourly basis (FWO, n.d.):

In the present case, Tracey Tan seeks review in her payments, as she is working from last 12 months on $17 per hour as a casual employee, and while acknowledging this fact she find that she is still a junior in her role. She is working as casual receptionist and believes that she has already proven herself as great team player and seeks hike in her pay. She also believes that her present hour rate is less than the rate stated in the award in context of her role and age (19 years).

In this case, Tracey is 19 years old and working from last 1 year in the organization which means she is currently working at level 1, and on the basis of above stated section 18 she is entitled to get 80% of the amount stated in clause 16. On the basis of classification, she is currently working at level 1 and in this context her minimum wage amount o hour basis is $15.55. However, she is getting $ 17 per hour which is more than the rate stated under the Act. Therefore, she is getting more than the minimum award rate.

2.Clause 7 of the Clerks—Private Sector Award 2010 stated that, Nevertheless another regulation of this award, both employer and employee can agreed to change the request of some particular rules of this award for the purpose of meeting the genuine needs of the individual employer and individual employee. Following are the areas under which terms can be changed between the individual employee and employer:

• Arrangements in context of when work is performed.
• Overtime rates paid to the employees of the organization.
• Penalty rates implied on the employees of the organization.
• Allowances paid to the employee
• Leave loading (FWO, n.d.)

It is necessary that all the individual cases are assessed on the basis of their merits, and in case of flexible working arrangements, if any professional employee make request in this regard then employer is under obligation to entertain such requests. The similar consideration should be given in context of request made by the administrative employee. There is no such formal or informal policy in this regard which offers flexible working hours any particular category of employees.

It must be noted that right to make request for flexible working arrangements applied to the national system of employees which also includes small business organization who have:

• Employee who already provides service of more than 12 months, and it also casual employees who provide regular service within the reasonable prospect of continuing employment.
• Employee who is responsible for ensuring the child care who is under school age or disabled (under 18 years of age).

Employee can make this request at any time, which means there is no restriction on the right to make request in context of request flexible working arrangements. Fair work Australia has power to review the refusal made by employer in context of the request for flexible work arrangements, which are before agreed by the parties. There is no capacity, for reviewing the refusal of the request made by the employer, Court consider the factors of the ‘reasonable business grounds’ test, unless any express term is stated in an enterprise agreement dispute resolution clause to that effect (Fair work act, 2009).

Part B

In the present case, Tom Davis made the request in context of the flexible working arrangements by communicating the same to the director of HR. He stated that his daughter newly returned to the work and he has to take care of his grandson on any one day of the week for the purpose of helping her to get adjusted back in her work. He is completely flexible for any day of the week. Tom is 64 years old, and this letter has been posted almost two weeks ago but HR director does not give any response in this context. Line manager of the Tom states that this could be little difficult to manage this thing in this business unit. However, it is not impossible to manage.

In the present case, request is made by the Tom Davis in context of the flexible working arrangement. Clause 7 of the Awards allowed the Tom to make request because he is responsible for ensuring the child care who is under school age. Employer possess the right to decide the request, but in case employer wants to refuse the request then it must be done on the basis of some reasonable grounds (aeardviewer, n.d.).

3.Accounts department of the company recently take decision to terminate employees for reducing the number of the employees because of the establishment of the automated system in context of the scanning of receipts and invoices. Because of this, final payments in context of the redundancy are made to the two employees.

Clause 14 of the award states, in case notice of termination is given to an employee in the situation of redundancy, then it is considered that employer terminate the employee during the notice period. Employee has right to get the benefits and payments they would had receive under this clause if they are not terminated from the employment, until the notice period expiration, but they are not entitled to payment instead off notice (NECA, 2010).

Employment termination is question to the further order in context of the Industrial Relations Commission, and in this context, employer is under obligation to pay to the employee following amount of the sum:

In case employee does not reach or cross age of 45 years, employer is under obligation to pay to the employee in following scale:

In case employee reaches or cross age of 45 years, employer is under obligation to pay to the employee in following scale:

In this context weeks’ pay defined as, all-purpose rates of the pay in terms of which employee is concerned at the termination date, and it also includes overall rate related to the payment, penalties related to the shifts, and allowances give to employees in context of this award.

In the present case, Cheryl Banks initiate their work on 1 January 2018, and on basis of above stated facts if he is not entitled to any amount in the different scenarios that is ( below 45 years, 45 years of age or above) is entitled to nil amount because he does not even completed 1 year at service. On the other hand, Patrick Sands initiate their work on 3 February 2015, and on basis of above stated facts if he is entitled to get payment of 10 weeks if he does not cross age of 45 years, and 12.5 weeks in case he cross the age of 45 years, because he completed 3 years but less than 4 years of service.

Junior employees' wages under the Clerks Private Sector Award 2010

1.For the purpose of part B of the assignment, we choose Qantas as the company. It is an Australian organization. This company was established in the 1920 in Queensland outback. Qantas has considered as the largest domestic and international airline of Australia. This company is registered as the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited (QANTAS), it is widely considered as the longest airline across the globe and one of the strongest brands of Australia.

This organization built reputation in context of the excellence in safety, operational reliability, engineering and maintenance, and customer service. Business of this company is the transportation of the customers under the two complimentary airline brands that are Qantas and jetstar. This company also has subsidiary businesses which mainly provide the services related to the airlines, and business in the specialist markets such as Q Catering.

Airline brands of the organization operate regional, domestic and international services, and this group includes the broad portfolio of the subsidiary businesses which ranges from Qantas Freight Enterprises to Qantas Frequent Flyer. Currently, organization operates almost 30000 people and almost 93% of them reside in Australia (Qantas, n.d.).

Enterprise agreement is the agreement which defines the terms and condition on which both the parties that are employer and employee agreed. It is defined as formal agreement which contain pay and conditions provisions which established jointly by the employers and employees in an individual workplace.

Enterprise agreement of the Qantas was approved by the Fair work commission and will remain in force till the time 30^th June 2020. Clause 4 of the agreement stated the parties which are bond with the agreement, and per this clause following are the parties which are bound with this agreement:

• Qantas Airways Limited, Q Catering limited, Q.H., Tours Limited, and Qantas Information Technology Limited (QFIT).
• All the employees who are employed as airline officers of the company and falls under the classification stated under schedule 1 or in classification of QFIT at level 1 to 10 stated under schedule 2.
• The Australian services Union (ASU) who is subject to the ASU making application in context of section 183 of the Fair Work Act.

Each and every clause of this agreement applied to all the employees of the company who are covered by this agreement unless stated otherwise, either in the clause or in the clause heading. Following are the clauses in this agreement:

• Only applied to those employees who are covered by the airline Officer classifications stated under schedule 1 of this agreement (as stated in the heading: airline officers only).
• Some clauses are only applied to the employees work in the Qantas Information Technology limited classified in schedule 2 and 4.3 of this agreement (as stated in the heading: QFIT only).
• This only applied to the staff stated under Airline Officer Senior professional level 1 or 2 stated in schedule 1 under this agreement (as stated in the heading: SP Staff only).

2.As stated in the enterprise agreement, per hour rate of normal employee in the Qantas is $19.63 (Payscale, n.d.). As stated by clause 33 payment to the employees must be paid fortnightly, and payment in context of the overtime worked must be made within fortnight before the pay day needs not to be paid until the following day. Wages to the employee will be paid through electronic fund transfer.

In the present case, Tracey Tan seeks review in her payments, as she is working from last 12 months on $17 per hour as a casual employee. She believes that her present hour rate is lower than the award rate for her role and age. She is 19 years old. In this case, Tracey is 19 years old and working from last 1 year in the organization which means she is currently working at level 1, and on the basis of above stated provision she is entitled to get $19.63 wage rate on hourly basis. On the basis of classification, she is working from last 12 months and in this context her minimum wage amount on hour basis is $19.63. However, she is getting $ 17 per hour which is less than the rate stated under the Act. Therefore, she is getting less than the minimum rate stated in the enterprise agreement.

Flexible working arrangements and employees' rights

In comparison with the clerical award, it can be said that hourly rates for wage provided by Qantas are better. This is because. Qantas pay $19.63 to the employee working from last 12 months, but in context of the clerical award, she is currently working at level 1 and in this context her minimum wage amount on hour basis is $15.55. However, she is getting $ 17 per hour which is more than the rate stated under the Act. Therefore, she is getting more than the minimum award rate but less than the rate defined in Enterprise agreement.

3.Clause 56 of the Enterprise agreement of the Qantas defines the provisions related to the payment made to redundant employee of the company. As stated by this clause, redundancy payments under the terms of this clause are paid in following manner:

• Employee is entitled to get the payment of three week pay in context of each year of service provided by employee, and this provision apply if length of the service is five years or below than that.
• Employee is entitled to get the payment of four week pay in context of each year of service provided by employee, and this provision apply if length of the service is more than five years.
• In must be noted that pro-rata payment is made to the employee for completed month of service.
• Another important aspect which must be noted is that above stated payments does not include any payment in context of notice.

Any payment in lieu of redundancy to the full time employee who later converted into part time will be calculated on the basis of equivalent hour’s salary of the full time employee after adjustment made in the time of service to reflect the actual hours worked by the employee.

Clause 57 of the agreement defines the provisions related to the pay calculation in context of the redundancy payments. As per this, payment will be made at the ordinary time rate which is stated by the enterprise agreement and further state regular weekly payments such as service increments, supervisory allowances, but it does not include payments related to the shift, overtime, and extraneous.

Accounts department of the company recently take decision to terminate employees for reducing the number of the employees because of the introduction of the automated system for the scanning of receipts and invoices. As a result, final payments in context of the redundancy are made to the two employees.

In the present case, Cheryl Banks initiate their work on 1 January 2018, and on basis of above stated facts he is entitled to three weeks of payment because he does not even completed 1 year at service. On the other hand, Patrick Sands initiate their work on 3 February 2015, and on basis of above stated facts he is entitled to get payment of 3 weeks, because he also not completed more than 5 years.

In context of clerical award, Cheryl Banks initiate their work on 1 January 2018, and on basis of above stated facts if he is not entitled to any amount in the different scenarios that is ( below 45 years, 45 years of age or above) is entitled to nil amount because he does not even completed 1 year at service. In context of enterprise agreement, he is entitled to get three weeks of payment because he does not even completed 1 year at service. Therefore, in this scenario EP of Qantas is better.

In this case, it can be said that redundancy provisions stated in the award are better as compared to the enterprise agreement, because Patrick Sands initiate their work on 3 February 2015, and on basis of above stated facts if he is entitled to get payment of 10 weeks if he does not cross age of 45 years, and 12.5 weeks in case he cross the age of 45 years, because he completed 3 years but less than 4 years of service. In enterprise agreement he gets 4 weeks’ pay only which is less than clerical reward pay.

References:

Awardviewer. Clerks—Private Sector Award 2010. Available at: https://awardviewer.fwo.gov.au/award/show/MA000002#P262_23649. Accessed on 23^rd May 2018.

Clerks—Private Sector Award 2010- Clause 14.

Clerks—Private Sector Award 2010- Clause 16.

Clerks—Private Sector Award 2010- Clause 18.

Clerks—Private Sector Award 2010- Clause 7.

Fair Work Act, (2009). Frequently Asked Questions. Available at: https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/~/media/corporate/allfiles/document/professional-resources/practice-management/fair_work_act_faqs_jan_2010.pdf. Accessed on 23^rd May 2018.

FWO. Clerks—Private Sector Award 2010. Available at: https://awardviewer.fwo.gov.au/award/show/MA000002#P268_24677. Accessed on 23^rd May 2018.

FWO. Redundancy pay & entitlements. Available at: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/ending-employment/redundancy/redundancy-pay-and-entitlements#2045-2046. Accessed on 23^rd May 2018.

NECA, (2010). Clerks—Private Sector Award 2010. Available at: https://neca.asn.au/sites/default/files/media/state_nsw/Employee%20Relations/Clerks-Private%20Sector%20Award%202010%20(MA000002)%20171213.pdf. Accessed on 23^rd May 2018.

Payscale. Average Hourly Rate for Qantas Employees. Available at: https://www.payscale.com/research/AU/Employer=Qantas/Hourly_Rate.

Qanats. Our Company. Available at: https://www.qantas.com/travel/airlines/company/global/en. Accessed on 23^rd May 2018.

Qantas EBA 11 agreement and side letters- clause 33

Qantas EBA 11 agreement and side letters- clause 4

Qantas EBA 11 agreement and side letters- clause 56

Qantas EBA 11 agreement and side letters- clause 57

Qantas. Qantas EBA 11 agreement and side letters. Available at: www.asu.asn.au/documents/doc.../1178-qantas-eba-11-agreement-and-side-letters. Accessed on 23^rd May 2018.