Raven HR

🏡 WFH v Return to the Office 🏪 Part 2 Further to my post yesterday: 👩🏭 The 5-day workweek originated with Henry Ford in 1926 and applied to manufacturing employees. Today’s modern workforce, primarily comprised of knowledge workers, has dramatically different needs and responsibilities that require more flexible options. 🇦🇺 In Australia there is no right to work from home (WFH), however employees who meet certain criteria (e.g. pregnant, have caring responsibilities etc) can make a request to work from home as part of a flexible working arrangement. 👩🏻⚖️ The Fair Work Commission (FWC) is currently reviewing whether the Clerks-Private Sector Award covering administrative workers, should include the right to work from home. The review will decide whether to include a general right to work from home in the award, which could then be expanded to other Modern Awards and flow on to enterprise agreements across Australia. 👩🏻💻 This has the potential to extend WFH rights to approximately 91,000 administrative and clerical employees. This could potentially impact over a million workers nationally and will be decided by the FWC in 2025. ABS data shows around 37% of Australian's work from home regularly, which is 5% higher from pre-pandemic levels. 🇺🇸 In America, Amazon’s decision to mandate a return to the office 5 days a week drew a lot of attention and controversy among employees. A survey conducted by the professional social network Blind showed that 91% of workers are dissatisfied with the mandate, and 73% are searching for new jobs. According to Forbes the data speaks for itself: 🔹 Return to the office mandates lower engagement, morale, productivity and retention, all without benefiting the bottom line. ⚠️ 🦘 Employers in Australia need to be cautious about following the mandates in America as they could face a rise in indirect discrimination claims from employees and likely many high performing employees will leave. 🔹 Instead of forcing employees back to the office, listen to what they want and need. 🔹 Then collaborate with them to find the best solution. Only then will you cultivate a culture of trust and respect that benefits everyone and promotes diversity and inclusion. —————————————————————————————— If you found this post useful follow Melisa Raven 🐦⬛ and click the 🔔 to ensure you see all my posts. Raven HR #HR #IR #Consulting #Outsourcing

🏡 WFH v Return to the Office 🏪 Part 1 The pandemic forced many employers to embrace working from home (WFH), even in roles where they had previously said it could not be done. Post pandemic many employers have adopted a hybrid approach allowing the employees to choose the working arrangements that allow them to be most productive or mandating that a certain number of days needs to be worked from the office. 🏪 Recently a number of large employers have mandated a full return to the office, abandoning the hybrid model completely. These include: 🔹 Amazon 🔹 Dell 🔹 Flight Centre 🔹 NSW Public Service ❓What does the data say? 📊 According to KPMG's 2024 global CEO survey, of 1325 chief executives: ♦️ 78% of global CEO’s "would likely" reward employees who came into the office with pay rises, promotions, and better opportunities. ♦️ 83% of the chief executives expect a full return to the office within three years, up from 64% the year before. 📈 HR software company Rippling surveyed managers at Australian businesses with 20 to 500 employees, finding: 🔸 67% endorse a work-from-anywhere policy. 🔸 Exactly two-thirds want a four-day working week. 🔸 44% of HR leaders agree a four-day work week can increase productivity 🔸 65% of IT and 62% of finance leaders think a four-day week would boost output. 🏡 Which employers are supporting WFH forever? ✅ Atlassian announced in 2020 it would allow employees to work from home "forever" however has offices so employees can choose whatever combination of office or remote working suits them. ✅ Telstra has also told employees they are able to work wherever they will be “most productive” including WFH. What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments. —————————————————————————————— If you found this post useful follow Melisa Raven 🐦⬛ and click the 🔔 to ensure you see all my posts. Raven HR #HR #IR #Consulting #Outsourcing

🤔 What do you think? No two people are the same. While the sentiment is good, it has flaws. It’s better not to assume how people want to be treated and ask. Just because I like things a certain way or how I prefer to communicate doesn’t mean you have the same preferences. Treating others as they want to be treated is a more inclusive approach. ✨ Be curious. Let me know what you think in the comments. —————————————————————————————— If you found this post useful follow Melisa Raven 🐦⬛ and click the 🔔 to ensure you see all my posts. Raven HR #HR #IR #Consulting #Outsourcing

🌟 Amazing FREE resource launched! The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has published the Sexual Harassment Disputes Benchbook on 1 October 2024! 📑 The FWC Benchbooks are a fantastic resource with guidance to help employers, employees, HR practitioners, lawyers and business owners understand Fair Work legislation. ⏰ This latest Benchbook applies to alleged sexual harassment in connection with work that happened (or started) on or after 6 March 2023. ❓What’s in the Benchbook? 🔹 It explains the FWC processes and provide examples of how Commission Members have interpreted the legislation in previous cases to make decisions. 🔹 It deals with changes to how the Commission deals with sexual harassment disputes as a result of provisions in the Secure Jobs Better Pay Act that expanded the Commission’s sexual harassment jurisdiction. #sexualharassment #SecureJobsBetterPay #FairWorkCommission —————————————————————————————— If you found this post useful follow Melisa Raven 🐦⬛ and click the 🔔 to ensure you see all my posts. Raven HR #HR #IR #Consulting #Outsourcing

⚠️ Dismissing an employee on the last day of probation? Think again! ⚖️ In a recent Federal Court case, an employer hastily terminated an employee for serious misconduct at 4:40pm on the last day of the minimum employment period. The employer made the decision to terminate following an executive committee meeting and before an investigation report into the conduct of the employee had been finalised. The employee sought an interim order for reinstatement pursuant to section 545 of Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act). 👩🏻⚖️ The Court found that the employers actions gave rise to a prima facie case of unlawful adverse action and reinstated the employee pending a final hearing. While this was an interim decision only it gives rise to the notion a dismissal like this during the probation/minimum employment period could result in unlawful adverse action and the court accepted this without questioning it in the decision. ❓What is the minimum employment period? An employee is only able to make a claim for unfair dismissal once they have completed the ‘minimum employment period’ which is: 🔹 6 months from commencement of employment if the employer has 15 or more employees; or 🔹 12 months if the employer is a small business with less than 15 employees. 🤷🏻♀️ What is adverse action? Adverse action is where a person (usually an employer) takes, plans or threatens to take action against an employee (e.g. dismissing an employee) because they exercised a workplace right or to prevent them from exercising a workplace right. Adverse action claims have a reverse onus of proof meaning, the employer needs to prove that they did not take adverse action (which assumes that the employer is guilty until they prove they are not). 🔍 What workplace right applied in this case? It's unlawful to dismiss an employee if a main reason for doing so is to prevent them from exercising a workplace right. When the employer in this case terminated the employee at 4:40pm, just 7 hours before the minimum employment period ended, they had dismissed the employee to arguably prevent them from being able to exercise their workplace right to make an application for unfair dismissal. 🔗 I’ll put the link to the case in the comments. —————————————————————————————— If you enjoyed this post follow Melisa Raven 🐦⬛ and click the 🔔 to ensure you see all my posts. Raven HR #HR #IR #Consulting #Outsourcing

🚨 Changes to parental leave Recently, the Senate passed the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Adding Superannuation for a More Secure Retirement) Bill 2024. New mothers and fathers will have their superannuation topped up by the federal government when they are taking time off to care for their newborn. The recently passed bill provides superannuation on top of government-funded paid parental leave. It has been introduced to federal parliament in an attempt to lower the gender gap for retirement savings. ⏰ What’s changing and when? From July 2025, 12% superannuation will be paid to parents who are using paid parental leave, which is expected to benefit 180,000 families. It is expected new parents will receive $3,000 in super over the length of their leave, which will expand to six months from 2026. The social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, said the laws would boost gender equality and bolster the economic security of women: She said: “Women make up the majority of primary caregivers in this country, leading to what has been referred to as the motherhood penalty, where they face greater economic insecurity because of time out of the workforce to care for children.” To read the full article, I’ll put the link in the comments. Raven HR #HR #IR #Consulting #Outsourcing

Free child care for low-income families The Productivity Commission was tasked by the federal government with finding a price mechanism that could wipe out many of the costs of child care for families. It has recommended raising the subsidy to 100 per cent for families on incomes below $80,000, and for subsequent children 5 and younger on incomes below $140,000. Those benefits would taper to zero for families with combined incomes above $580,000. The childcare subsidy "activity test" should also be abolished, the commission has recommended, meaning subsidies would not be limited for people who do not work. The Productivity Commission says doing so would improve early childhood attendance by 10 per cent, with most of that increase being children from low- and middle-income families. To read the full article see the link in the comments.

🚨Nearly $167,000 in penalties over migrant exploitation The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has secured $166,860 in court-ordered penalties against one of Australia’s largest celery producers for underpaying vulnerable migrant employees more than $91,000. The three farm hand employees were underpaid $91,907 between them in the course of a year: 🔸 one of them more than $37,000 🔸 the other two more than $27,000 each. They were all visa holders from non English speaking backgrounds who had not been paid any wages during extended periods of their employment. The employer (a celery producer) breached the Fair Work Act after it: ❌ underpaid employees and failed to pay them in full and at least monthly between February 2020 and February 2021. ❌ failed to pay minimum wages, casual loading, overtime and public holiday rates owed under the Horticulture Awards 2010 and 2020. 😱 What’s worse is the Federal Circuit and Family Court found the conduct was deliberate and intentional! In his judgement, Judge Karl Blake characterised the employers conduct as “egregious”. Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth condemned the breaches, stating “The conduct by the employer in this case was appalling”. ✅ Ms Booth also reaffirmed FWO priorities: 🔹 “We don’t tolerate the exploitation of migrant workers, who have the same rights in Australia as any other workers. Protecting their workplace rights is an ongoing priority for the Fair Work Ombudsman. 🔹 “Boosting compliance in the horticulture and agriculture sectors is also a priority. 🔗 I’ll put the link to the full media statement in the comments. ———————————————————————————— If you need assistance with award and pay compliance contact Melisa Raven 🐦⬛ at Raven HR or book an appointment by clicking the link under my name.

✨Testimonial Tuesday! It’s been a real pleasure working with HG Turf Group! 💚 They are a family owned business and global leader in offering a range of hybrid and natural turf solutions. 🏟️ They design, construct, manage and maintain sports field assets for a range of clients (including the MCG), from national and international stadia to local and national councils and sports organisations. 📣 Here’s what Hamish Sutherland, co-owner and Managing Director of HG Turf Group has to say about working with Raven HR. 🌱 Whether you’re a HR professional, business owner or in-house counsel I can give you the support you need on #HR and #IR matters! 🌟 Raven HR has clients of all sizes from businesses with 3 employees to national businesses with 1000’s of employees in a wide range of industries. 🙌🏼 If you are looking for an HR/IR consultant to partner with, contact Melisa Raven 🐦⬛ or click the link under my name to book an appointment to see if we are a good fit.

The effects of the supermoon have finally hit HR, with a tsunami of employee issues and investigations… Happy Friday! Need a hand contact Melisa at Raven HR. Feel free to repost 🔁