New laws provide stronger rights for union reps and give working people the right to disconnect.
The Albanese government has been very active in the industrial relations space, passing several significant changes to the Fair Work Act, the omnibus legislation which governs the industrial system in Australia. Most of these changes reflect improvements for the rights of workers and unions, as might be hoped of a Labor government.
Among the changes are a new tranche of “Delegate’s Rights”, new entitlements for workplace union representatives to go about the important work that keeps good workplaces functioning well.
These new rights allow duly elected reps to enforce the provisions of awards and agreements by representing members in the workplace, communicate with members, and gain access to both workplace facilities (including email), and also to paid union training.
Another important change is the Right to Disconnect, under which employees now have the right to ignore communication from their employer outside of normal working hours in most circumstances.
To find out how these and other new rights might work in your workplace, contact your union today.
More information:
- New rights for delegates (23 February 2024)
- Right to Disconnect: IEU speaks up for members at Fair Work consultation (20 June 2024)
- IEUA Speaks on the Right to Disconnect (26 August 2024)
- IEU in the media: Right to Disconnect (10 News First, 26 August 2024)
This update is part of the October 2024 edition of Future Perfect enewsletter.
You can read past editions of Future Perfect on our enews homepage or stay across all our updates on LinkedIn.
Future Perfect is distributed to IEU members in the private post-secondary education sector two times per year.
