Significant Amendments To Workchoices Commenced On 12 December 2006

As foreshadowed in our November update, Federal Parliament has made significant amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth) and Workplace Relations Regulations 2006 (Cth).

A summary of the most significant amendments is set out below.

Preservation of redundancy entitlements

– where a workplace agreement is terminated by an employer in accordance with the Act after the nominal expiry date of the workplace agreement, the applicable underpinning instrument does not operate except for protected award conditions. The effect of the amendments is that any redundancy provision contained in the workplace agreement that is terminated by the employer will continue to operate for a period of up to 12 months after the date the workplace agreement is terminated. A similar arrangement applies to pre-reform certified agreements.