Statistics Overview of Australia Employees Working Condition

Study after study shows that healthy employees are happier, more productive and more profitable.

Healthy employees can be almost three times more productive in their performance review than their unhealthy colleagues and unhealthy employees take up to nine times more sick leave than their healthy colleagues.

(Source: A study by Medibank Private).

Productive employees can work for longer periods of time, concentrate more effectively on the task at hand, are better able to manage demands and priorities, meet deadlines and interact positively with others.  Productivity and a good performance review = profitability.

The statistics for Australian employees point to the need for workplace wellness:

·                 Australian employees don’t exercise enough. 10% of the Australian workers surveyed are completely inactive, 40% engage in only minimal exercise, and another 12% do less than one hour of physical activity per week.

·                 Poor dietary habits with almost half (46%) of the Australian workers surveyed living on high fat diets.

·                 62% of the Australian workers surveyed are overweight

·                 More than half of the Australian workforce is stressed with 53% of the Australian workers surveyed feel over-whelmed with stress and pressure a significant proportion of the time.

·                 56% of the Australians surveyed are in the medium to high-risk area in participating in risk behaviours including smoking, drinking and irregular use of sunblock.

·                 More than half of the Australian workers surveyed don’t get enough sleep with 56% of the employees surveyed getting less than seven hours sleep per night and 22% reporting feeling un-refreshed or exhausted during work.

·                 21% of the Australian employees surveyed experienced a medical condition in the three months preceding the survey. This includes back and neck pain (29%), hay fever (22%), heart disease (21%), migraine headaches (14%) and asthma (13%).

Stress, excess weight and chronic pain can all lead to lost productivity and a poor performance review. Implementing a health and wellness program geared to the needs of your workforce is an effective way to boost productivity and employee satisfaction. 

“The simple truth is that a healthy employee is much more profitable,” says Bailey Vaez, owner of Proactive Movement, a Toronto-based wellness at work consultancy. “A spirited and robust individual can think clearly, lead more effectively, build outstanding relationships, and produce exceptional results. Having said that, it is clear that by choice every company would want to employ and retain healthy individuals.”

To drive a good performance review, you should motivate well with wellness. A wellness program is a major decision factor when considering working for or staying with a company.

(Source: Fortune Magazine survey, The Best 100 Companies To Work For.)

“Employees are likely to be attracted to, remain, with and value a company that obviously values them” Ellen Exum, Director of Wellness and Prevention at PepsiCo. Implementing an employee wellness program in the workplace is effective. Just ask major organizations like IBM, Pitney Bowes, Motorola and Texas Instruments who have all achieved success with their wellness efforts.

There are the obvious benefits of healthy, happy employees engaged in their jobs and interacting positively with the people around them. In addition, companies can save millions of dollars each year in healthcare costs with well-structured and rewarding workplace wellness programs

When Do You Need Support with Workplace Law?

Businesses in Australia are facing one of the most complex and volatile times in workplace law and relations. From July 1 2010, 85% of Australia’s employers needed to increase minimum wages and comply with new allowances, loadings and penalties under new Modern Awards; this is just one example of many instances where a change in workplace law called for businesses to seek legal advice if they were to remain compliant.

A recent survey of 3000 businesses conducted by The EI Group, found that over 65% feel either confused or very confused about the effect of the new workplace laws on their business.

“Our workplace lawyers have been helping employers with workplace relations and employment law issues for 20 years and I cannot recall seeing people this confused before. I really feel that employers need more help than ever from workplace solicitors to understand these changes and find ways to stay compliant.” Ben Thompson, CEO, Employment Innovations.

Workplace lawyers can assist businesses in the following areas:

  National Employment Standards – Workplace lawyers can ensure your business is complaint with maximum hours, requests for flexible working conditions, parental leave and annual leave, personal and carer’s leave, community service leave, work on public holidays and notice of termination and redundancy obligations.

  Enterprise Agreement making – Workplace solicitors can draft and lodge Enterprise Agreements and appear before Fair Work Australia on related matters. Enterprise Agreements give you stability by allowing you to bed down the workplace conditions and wages for your employees for up to 4 years.

  Unfair dismissal and unlawful terminations – Getting good advice from workplace lawyers about relevant workplace law before terminating or making an employee redundant can save you having to defend a costly claim for unfair dismissal or unlawful termination. Workplace lawyers can give you advice and represent you in court.

 Equal Opportunity and Anti-Discrimination – Workplace solicitors can assist with legal advice and legal representation relating to discrimination including disability discrimination, sexual harassment, age discrimination and racial discrimination. 

  Industrial Relations – Workplace solicitors can liaise with Fair Work Australia, give advice on good faith bargaining and protected industrial action.

 Drafting of Employment Contracts – Workplace lawyers can ensure that your employment contracts comply with the National Employment Standards and draft new agreements or revise existing agreements.

 Under Payment of Wages Claims – Workplace lawyers can give you advice and representation on any potential wages claim.

 Legal Representation – Workplace solicitors can represent you in court, or at a tribunal for any workplace related issue. They can provide you with information on your rights and obligations as an employer so that you remain compliant and use best practice.

During these volatile times in workplace relations and workplace law, informing yourself up front about your businesses’ legal rights, options and obligations can save you headache down the line. Employment Innovations can offer you and your business the support you need to stay compliant and have peace of mind. They also offer fully outsourced HR and payroll services, as well as other legal and migration services.

Employing Foreign Workers

So you have heard about Gina Rinehart’s deal to bring 1715 temporary foreign construction workers to her Roy Hill mine, but what do you know about your own ability to employ foreign workers?  You may be surprised to learn that you don’t need to be a mining magnate to access highly skilled foreign workers who are willing to live and work in Australia.

To be clear, Gina Rinehart’s enterprise migration deal is special. Enterprise Migration Agreements are specifically for large projects in the resource sector that require more than $2 billion capital investment and 1500 workers. They come with stringent requirements for training Australian workers and the foreign workers are protected under the Worker Protection Act 2009. Outside these mega projects businesses must go down the path of employer sponsored visas to employ non-Australians.

Until 30 June 2012 the two main types of employer sponsored visas are Long Stay Temporary Business visas (457) and Employer Nominated Scheme (EMS) visas (121 and 856). In addition there are Regional Skilled Migration schemes for regional employers. These schemes will continue after 1 July 2012 but with some changes to visa classes for permanent migration.

A 457 visa can operate for up to 4 years during which time the employee must work in the nominated occupation for the sponsor.  EMS visas allow an employer to permanently sponsor a foreign worker provided they are offering full-time work in a relevant occupation for at least 3 years. It is possible to convert a 457 visa to a permanent EMS visa with a formal skills assessment or after two years continuous work.

If you choose to sponsor a temporary foreign worker your business must meet the training eligibility benchmark. This means providing evidence that an amount equivalent to 1% of your total payroll is spent on training your employees who are Australian citizens or permanent residents. Alternatively you can pay an amount equivalent to 2% of total payroll to an industry training fund.

You must also meet strict criteria throughout the sponsorship including:

●        paying equivalent terms and conditions of employment

●        paying travel costs to enable the sponsored persons to leave Australia if requested

●        paying costs incurred by the Commonwealth to locate and remove an unlawful non-citizen

●        record keeping and provision of information to Immigration

●        not allowing the sponsored person to work in another occupation

●        not recovering costs (including migration agent fees and recruitment)

To be eligible for permanent sponsorship an employer must have a training strategy for existing Australian employees, demonstrate a legitimate need to sponsor a foreign worker and ensure that the position being filled is a highly skilled occupation on the Employer Nomination Scheme Occupation List (ENSOL).  The ongoing obligations for sponsoring a permanent worker are equivalent to employing an Australian citizen.

The application process for 457 visas follows these stages:

Step 1 the employer applies to be a sponsor
Step 2 the employer nominates a position 

Step 3 the employee applies for a visa

The application process for the employer nominated scheme is only two steps. First the employer nominates a position and second the employee applies for a visa.

Anybody concerned about Union claims that foreign workers are stealing jobs from Australian citizens should be reminded that the foreign worker visa program has built in protections for Australian jobs including training and development opportunities  to address skills gaps and making genuine attempts to fill positions locally before looking offshore.

There are significant changes to skilled migration from 1 July 2012. Now is a great time to look at your options or to review your existing arrangements.

Workplace Law: The Critical Issues

Employees should be familiar with workplace law to remain compliant, protect both employer and employees, to avoid legal problems, fines and possible government action.     

Knowledge of workplace law or employment law helps both parties avoid situations that may be deemed illegal. Situations like these include illegal dismissal or unlawful termination, failure to distribute the pay slip within the required period, asking employees to work without pay, instances that may be seen as forced overtime, to name a few.     

There are also a number of instances that fall under the basic rights of employees in the workplace. So employers should avoid situations that would be interpreted as depriving employees of time off during holidays, not giving the notice of termination in advance, and exceeding the maximum hours in a week that employees can work, among others.   

Issues that fall under union membership rights, on the other hand, include employees having the freedom to join labor unions and to choose if they will participate in strikes or not. Employers, therefore, should not take actions that might be seen as discriminating against employees that joined the labor union or a particular union action.

These are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. Employment law covers issues on the actions, rights and responsibilities of the company and its employees, including compensation, benefits, pensions and retirement, employees’ claims for discrimination, standards and safety at the workplace, and unemployment compensation.

Obviously, employment law is a vast and complicated feat that requires expertise, experience and the latest information on the current best practices as well as the prevailing labor laws and other applicable legislation. This task is, as we know, critical. That’s why companies have a team – in house or outsourced – dedicated to handling issues under employment law.

Other issues to manage include disputes and suits that fall under Industrial Relations, particularly union right of entry and good faith bargaining. Also part of handling employment are all the disputes, claims and issues covered by the the Fair Work Act 2009.  

Tasks and issues that are part of the Enterprise Agreement should also be of particular concern. These include preparation of the Enterprise Agreement draft, lodging this particular draft, representing the employer during court or tribunal proceedings, calculating the wages and the like.

Handling discrimination and harassment issues are also among the most critical. As with most, if not all, of these issues, legal advice and representation would be required.  

All issues and processes under hiring and recruitment are also critical. Hiring employees from abroad or handling processes under migration services, onboarding, drafting the contract of employment, preparing the company procedures and policies, employment conditions, and occupational health and safety are just some of the tasks that require skillful navigation.  

Actions and issues involving wage claims – particularly record keeping obligations, reporting and auditing, and legal counsel and representation in cases involving salary claims and related issues under National Employment Standards and applicable industrial instruments – would also benefit from a skillful team of workplace law experts.