Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) abolished by Easter

QUESTION: You have been forever telling small business to shun Australian Workplace Agreements. They cost us a fortune to put in place. They were hard to negotiate and now Rudd is getting rid of AWAs by February. I have less than 3 months to get my people back to Employment Contracts. You lawyers will make a killing out of all the new rules. I will buy some more Integrated Legal Holdings Limited shares on the Australian Stock Exchange. Make me rich Brett.

ANSWER: You have about 9 weeks to move all your employees from AWAs to common law employment contracts. We sell them for $99 each at www.lawcentral.com.au. Unless you are very big business or government you probably shouldn't have been messing around with AWAs anyway.

We first thought that Rudd would allow the old AWAs to run their course and new ones could operate until the end of 2009. However, it now seems dangerous to have any AWAs in existence. The risk is that they will be read down so that the employee gets all the protection of the local Minimum Conditions and Awards -- but the employee still keeps all the good things (that were supposedly traded to get rid of the Minimum Conditions in the first place). I wouldn't be running the risk of having AWAs.

Suffice to say that our Employment Contracts at LawCentral www.lawcentral.com.au fully comply with the old system and the new system.

For our Platinum Members that paid their $99 to upgrade I have dissected the rules and the new Minimum Conditions under Rudd here.

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News & Politics

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• AWA
• politics
• Agreements
• workplace
• ILH
• LawCentral
• ASX
• government
• Policy
• Brett
• Davies
• Lawyers
• contract
• employee
• employers

[sabas8610]

It is stupid to abolish AWA's now for several reasons:

1. The money already spent on setting them up

2. Business confidence in Australian law making

3. The AWA's increased Australias chance for business investment, business from outside would have seen Australia as having a hard working and flexible workforce

4. Public confusion with work rights

5. Australia cant compete with other countries work forces if they have such A CONFUSING SYSTEM FOR WORKPLACE RIGHTS!!!