Post‑implementation Review – Department of Employment
On 21 September 2012 the former Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations announced plans to amend the Fair Work Act 2009. The amendments allowed for the transfer of employee terms and conditions of employment where an employee transfers from certain State government employers to a national system employer. The changes included enabling the Fair Work Commission to make orders that modify the general effect of the transfer of business rules and providing for the interaction between the transfer of employees’ terms and conditions of employment and the Fair Work Act 2009. The proposal was assessed as likely to have a significant regulatory impact on the economy, and was therefore subject to the preparation of a RIS. However, an exemption from the best practice regulation requirements was granted by the then Prime Minister. This exemption also required the Department of Employment to prepare a post-implementation review (PIR) within two years of implementation. The PIR concluded that the Transfer of Business Amendment Act has increased the protection of employment terms and conditions for transferring state public sector employees. Since the implementation of the Transfer of Business Amendment fewer state public sector employees have transferred to new national system employers. The PIR also concluded that the legislation does not meet its stated intention of achieving national consistency for the treatment of employees in transfer of business scenarios. A PIR was completed by the Department of Employment in August 2014 and was assessed as adequate by the Office of Best Practice Regulation. The estimated annual average regulatory cost of the Transfer of Business Amendment Act was approximately $62,000, which has been agreed with the OBPR.
