A draft of the Federal Government’s National Employment Standards has been released, which will be central to the permanent workplace laws that will be introduced on 1 January 2010.
The ten standards cover work hours, requests for flexible working arrangements, parental leave, long service leave, annual leave, personal and compassionate leave, community service leave, public holidays, termination and a fair work information statement.
The Government welcomes any feedback, but has highlighted certain issues such as protection of the 38-hour week with relation to high income executives.
"How should the proposed maximum hours national employment standard deal with the long and irregular hours worked by high income employees?" the draft asks.
The draft also introduces a new category of leave for community service. This will enable employees to leave work to participate in arranged community services such as emergency services and fire fighting.
This would only be available to employees that “comply with notice and evidence requirements set out in the National Employment Standards”.
Also outlined in the draft is entitlement of 12 months unpaid leave for each parent. An additional 12 months can be requested however employers have the right to refuse on business grounds.
The Sydney Morning Herald article has more information on the new community service leave category and more specifics of the draft.
If you would like to submit feedback to The Government you can do this via the National Employment Standars discussion paper. Instructions on how to submit can be found on the
Workplace website.
National Employment Standards drafted
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