Further amendments to the General Retail Award 2010

Written by Charles Watson of Workforce Guardian for C&I

A month ago, I wrote a brief online item in C&I relating to the amendments to the most significant industry Award – the General Retail Award 2010. Effectively those changes increase or alter employee penalty rates for working after 6.00 pm, or on a Saturday, or when working as a shiftworker under that Award. Those amendments were effective from 1 November 2018.

Since that synopsis of upcoming changes a new decision of the Fair Work Commission has dropped that further amends the industry Award.

The additional amendments to that Award include:

Payment of wages upon termination

The Award now contains a term that requires employers pay terminated employees all their entitlements, including outstanding wages and accrued leave, within 7 days of their termination. The decision recognised that some Awards were silent in respect to the time period within which termination related payments were to be made.

Employee failing to provide adequate notice

Changes have also been made to the amount an employer can deduct if an employee resigns without giving enough notice. The revised term limits employers to deducting no more than 1 week’s wages, so long as the employee is at least 18 years old, when employees fail to provide their employer with adequate notice of termination.

Other amendments

The Award has also had amendments to clauses that relate to the individual flexibility agreements, consultation requirements on major workplace changes and others.

These additional amendments were also effective from 1 November 2018.

Over the coming months C&I subscribers will have to amend employee conditions as well as consider how they will approach the issues listed above, and in the previous item.

As these Commission decisions can drop at any time, C&I subscribers should remain alert to the ongoing revisions and amendments to all modern Awards, particularly the General Retail Award 2010, and make the appropriate amendments as required. C&I subscribers should also look forward to the next printed edition of the magazine as I will be contributing an item on the new casual conversion clause contained in the General Retail Award, how to handle the issue, and what it means for your business.

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