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Prime Minister’s Exemption –Amendments to the Fair Work Act – Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations

On 8 March 2013, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Bill Shorten, announced further reforms to the Fair Work Act following on from the recommendations of the Fair Work Act Review. These reforms relate to amendments to bargaining for greenfields agreements, right of entry provisions and allowing limited access to workplace determinations in certain circumstances where bargaining has become intractable. On 14 March 2013, the Prime Minister of Australia also announced amendments to the Fair Work Act which amend the modern awards objective so that the Fair Work Commission must consider the need to provide additional remuneration to certain employees. This amendment relates to employees who work shift work, overtime, unsocial, irregular, or unpredictable hours, or on weekends and public holidays. The Prime Minister granted an exemption from the Regulation Impact Statement requirements for these amendments on the basis of exceptional circumstances. A Post-implementation review will be required within 1 to 2 years of implementation of the changes.