Assessment 1: Part A
Question 1:
Zak Callaghan, the department manager of Men’s Fashion, has emailed you with a query regarding maximum working hours. Gayle Potter, his assistant manager, will be taking unpaid leave for the next 6 months and he would like to offer his supervisor, Henry Harris, the opportunity of acting in her role. Zak would like to appoint Henry on a 40 hour per week contract but he is not sure if this is possible.
Draft your response to Zak and provide him with the following information in the Fair Work Act 2009 and the Award, which deals with the maximum weekly hours that an employee is required to work.
Include the following in your summary:
• The appropriate section/part of the legislation and the Award that deals with the topic
• The maximum weekly hours that can be worked in a week
• What may be deemed as reasonable or unreasonable additional hours
• Whether Henry can refuse to work these additional hours
Desmond Chin
123,
North Perth WA 6100.
J378010@tafe.wa.edu.au
27July 2017
Zak Callaghan
Citistores Perth
19 Aberdeen St,
Perth WA 6000.
Dear Zak:
I have received your email about the problems of a 40 hour per week contract for Henry Harris. Therefore, I have done some research about the Fair Work Act 2009 and the rewards and other legislation information to confirm that Henry Harris will work under a legal procedure in the Men’s Fashion department.
According to the Fair Work Act 2009, section 62, is illegal to work 40 hours per week. The maximum working hours must not be more than 38 hours per week or 19 days per month, of eight hours a day. The working working hours are between 7am and 7pm. However, Henry can work more than 38 hours with reasonable additional time, and the employer must have regards about the employee’s working hours so that they do not affect the employee’s personal time including any family responsibilities, and will not cause any risk to the employee’s health and safety or the needs of the workplace or any other related matter. In addition, the employees be paid pay overtime rates if they work over the spread of ordinary hours and it will cost an additional 25% if the employee worked after 6pm on Monday to Friday (Fair Work Act 2009, n.d.).
Basic on General Retail Industry Awards, section 29 (Overtime), a full time employee is able to refuse to work additional hours after they have finished 38 hours work time. Therefore, you may not appoint Henry on a 40 hour per week contract because it has reached the maximum weekly working hours. But, Henry can work more than 38 hours with reasonable additional time. Any additional hour must be approved between yourself and Henry and must not put Henry in any health and safety risk (Fair Work Commission, 2017).
Western Australia Award provide information for the employees and the employers in Western Australia industrial relation system. It shows pay rates and an overview of employment conditions, like the hours of the work, maximum weekly hours, overtime rates, penalty amount and leave provisions for the most attribute used Western Australia Award (WA Award, n.d).
Kind Regards,
Desmond Chin.
Question 2:
Provide a summary, in your own words, to reflect your understanding of the ‘safety net of employee entitlements’, as set out in the Fair Work Information Statement. Your summary must:
The Fair Work Information Statement is a condition of employment that provides information for the new employees before they start their new jobs. Also, every employer has to give all new employees a copy of Fair Work Information Statement if can be given by mail, email or in person.
• Include a brief description of the 10 National Employment Standards.
The 10 National Employment Standards are as follow (Fair Work Ombudsman, n.d)
1. Maximum weekly hours: The maximum weekly hours for an employee is 38 ordinary hours. The spread of hours is between 7am to 7pm.
2. Requests for flexible working arrangements: Employee must need to work at least 12 months with the same employer, then they are able to request flexible working arrangements if they are parents, are 55 or older, or they have responsibility for the care of any child who is school aged and has a disability.
3. Parental leave and related entitlements: Employees is able to get parental leave when an employee take care a child under 16 years of age or an employee’s or their partner gives birth. All employees in Australia are entitled to take parental leave, but they must have worked for their employer for at least one year.
4. Annual leave: Annual leave is also known as holiday pay. This standard comes from the National Employment Standards (NES), so employees are allowed to be paid while during holidays. Full-time and part-time employees will get 4 weeks of annual leave, but based on their ordinary hours of work. Casual employees do not get paid for annual leave.
5. Personal carers leave and compassionate leave
a) Sick and carer’s leave: Sick and carer’s leave is also known as personal leave. It can be used when an employee is injured or deal with some personal illness. Furthermore, an employee may also be allow not to take leave when they need to take care of responsibilities and family emergencies or help during a family emergency. Other than that, employees can get paid for sick and carer’s leave if they show evidence to their employer.
b) Compassionate and bereavement leave: All employees (including casual employees) are able to take compassionate and bereavement leave. Employees are able to take compassionate leave if an employee’s household members dies or suffers a life threatening illness or injury. Compassionate leave can be taken as two separate periods of one day each or a single continuous two-day period, and as well as the employer needs to agree with it.
6. Community service leave: Employees, including casual employees, can request no limit to community service leave, but is unpaid leave. Moreover, employees must request and submit the time or expected period of absence as soon as possible to their employer.
7. Long service leave: Loyal employees will get long service leave after a long period of working with the same employer, including some of the casual employees. If, means an employee keeps their long service leave entitlement even if they work on different projects for different employers.
8. Public holidays: Employees can get different benefits on public holiday which depend on the state or territory the employee works in. Employers are entitled to public holidays depending on where they are based for work, not where they are working on the day of the public holiday.
9. Notice of termination and redundancy pay: Firing or terminating employment is to end an employee’s employment. An employer has to deliver or send the employee written notice of their last day of employment. Redundancy happens when an employee’s job is not needed to be done by someone or an employer becomes bankrupt or insolvent.
10. Fair Work Information Statement: All employees must have a copy of the Fair Work Information Statement that given by their new employer before they start their new job. The statement shows lots of information, act and conditions for new employees to follow.
• Explain why it is important for all employers to provide a copy of this statement to newly recruited employees.
It is important that all employers give a copy of the Fair work information statement to their new employees. The employer and employees will all be protected under this legislation. Besides that, new employees must understand and follow the policy and procedure statement, because they might do somethings against the law in the company. This will avoid unpleasant things happening and everything will be under control.
Question 3:
Provide a summary of your understanding of the provisions in the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 that apply to unlawful discrimination in the workplace, and which must be applied to the recruitment and selection of applicants and employees at Citistores. Include a range of appropriate / relevant sections of the Act to support your response.
According to my understanding, The Equal Opportunity Act 1984 is an act to make sure all employees will have a harmonious working environment. Equal opportunity policy will allow employees to be given ‘a fair go’ to present their professional skills and experience free from discrimination, bullying and harassment. Citistores must provide that each employee deserves to work in a fair and equitabe environment (EOC, n.d).
According to the Equal Opportunity Act 1984, part two is about discrimination on the grounds of sex, marital status, pregnancy or breast feeding. Section 11 shows that it is illegal for discrimination against applicants and employees that should be offered employment or exclude a person on the grounds of the person’s sex or pregnancy in the terms or conditions of employment that the owner affords the employee. According to section 35 of the Equal Opportunity Act 1984, it is illegal for an organisation or a committee of management to discriminate on gender history grounds against a gender reassigned person who is not a member of the organisation by refusing to accept the gender reallocated person’s application for employment. Moreover, section 35P and 37 shows discrimination about the race of and a person’s sexual orientation respectively. It is not allowed to deny or limit employee access in term of their skin colour or even employee’s sexual orientation (Austlii, n.d).
Therefore, an employee’s race, sex, age, marital status or pregnancy status must not be an issue for them to show their ability, skills and experience at Citistores. Overall, for all employees of Citistores as well as consultants, visitors or people who may work with the company, if they do not follow this policy, it will not be tolerated and must be punished which may lead to the termination of employment at Citistores, so the unfair discrimination law must be applied to all vacancy applications and employees at Citistores.
Question 4:
a) Summaries your understanding of the following, in your own words:
I. The provisions of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1984 which relate to employer duties for training employees. Include the appropriate/relevant sections of the Act in your response.
According to section 19 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1984, an employer must provide a safe workplace that is always maintained and upgraded. The training is required to be provided in accordance with government subsection and shall train every 6 months. The employer shall also provide such information, instruction and training to and the supervision of the employees as it is necessary to ensure that when they perform their work that are not putting themselves in a dangerous situation (Western Australian Current Acts, n.d).
II. The name and the intent of the applicable Code of Practice established under the OHS Act that applies to working hours arrangements and training.
Code of practice- Working hours. The intent of the applicable Code of Practice established under the OHS Act that applies to working hours’ arrangements and training so as provide guidance for employers and employees on the management of health and safety hazards and risks commonly associated with working hours’ arrangements and some of the legislative requirements in the Act.
b) Explain the impact that the requirements set out in the legislation discussed above (4a (i) and (ii) have on Citistores’ recruitment, selection and induction processes.
Citistores must follow OSH Act and the code of practice on the recruitment, selection and induction processes because it protects the health and safety of all its workers. The protection covers the physical safety and mental health of all workers. The impact that the requirement set out in OSH Act and Code of practice have on Citistores’ recruitment, selection and induction processes is to eliminate or minimise the health and safety risks arising from the work from Citistores undertakes. Besides that, Citistores must provide training, instruction or supervision to the new staff so that they can carry out their work safety. If Citistores doesn’t follow the legislation, health risks such as fatigue, sleep disturbance and sleep deprivation are associated with long working hours will occur with the employees. Citistores must have a consultation with the employees to identify hazards before incident occur and develop measure to eliminate or reduce the associated risks
Question 5:
Identify and describe at least three examples of business objectives highlighted Citistores’ Strategic Plan that may impact on recruitment, selection and induction activities to be undertaken by the HR department in the near future. Include brief details on at least three relevant Citistores policies that will support these HR recruitment activities.
There are 3 key priorities stated in the “Citistores Strategies Plan 2017” that may impact on recruitment which include:
Employer of Choice: Citistores will become nationally known “Employer of Choice”, where staff enjoy a nurturing and fulfilling work environment based upon a healthy work/ life balance principle.
Customer Service: Citistores will become the Australian public’s number one choice.
Expansion: (1) Increase Citistores national presence beyond its 2 capital city stores resulting in 5 stores nationwide. (2) Expand the department genre into the 2 capital city stores.
Policy 015- Employee Code of Conduct. All employees in Citistores are expected to live our values through our behaviour at work and the way we interact with each other and our customers.
Policy 009- Recruitment and Selection Policy. The policies and procedures for employee recruitment and selection at Citistores are established to facilitate the company’s commitment to equal employment opportunity, hiring the best suited applicants for available vacancies, making the best use of their abilities, providing job satisfaction and ensuring that appropriate communications, records and human resource controls are maintained.
Policy 029- Training and Development. All employees in Citistores will be given the opportunity to participate in training and education programs designed to provide factual knowledge and job-related skills to their specific role. It provides on the job or job specific training, seminars, workshops and conferences. Employees in Human Resources Department may be required to attend training outside 15 hours per year. The training will be unpaid in their own time, however, Citistores will pay the training fees.
Question 6:
Describe the following recruitment processes, using your own words, and briefly explain how you might go about each of them when filling a vacancy at Citistores:
a) Internal recruitment methods – include at least 3 examples
b) External recruitment methods – include at least 5 examples – one example must address Assessment Centres.
Internal recruitment is any method of identifying and attracting job candidates from within an organisation. Internal recruitment methods include:
• Internal advertisement- Organisation advertise the new position to their current employees or posting the new jobs in the work place.
• Promotions- Employees are promoted to a higher position with better work condition and get a higher salary.
• Transfers: Transfer involves shifting of persons from present jobs to other similar jobs. These do not involve any change in rank or responsibilities.
External recruitment is a strategy of seeking a new employee outside the company through advertisement. The organisation is having the external recruitment to invite some intelligent or fresh perspectives applicants into the organisation.
• Social media advertisement- for example “Linked In”
• Employee Referrals- Employees working in the organisation are encouraged to recommend the names of their friends, working in other organisations for a possible vacancy.
• Assessment centre or recruitment agencies- Assessment Centre are an useful way of recruiting to the usual interview structure. Almost all kind of job can be use and suitable for the format. The system can easy to define and evaluate the right competencies and information from using the principle of a ‘cross refrences’.
• Direct walk in- The employees who are interested in any company can bring along their cover letter and resume to the company and submit it to the incharge department or person.
• Website- search the job position on Seek.com, Indeed.com or Careerone.com (Your Article library, 2017).
References
Fair Work Act 2009. (n.d.). Maximum weekly hours. Retrieved from:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/fwa2009114/s62.html
Fair Work Commission. (2017). General Award 2010. Retrieved from:
https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/documents/modern_awards/award/ma000009
Government Western Australia. (n.d.). Western Australia Award. Retrieved from:
https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/labour-relations/wa-award-summaries
Fair Work Ombudsman. (n.d.). National Employment Standards. Retrieved from:
https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employee-entitlements/national-employment-standards
WA Current Acts. (n.d.). Equal Opportunity Act 1984 Sect35p. Retrieved from:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/wa/consol_act/eoa1984250/s35p.html
WA Current Acts. (n.d.). Equal Opportunity Act 1984 Sect11. Retrieved from:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/wa/consol_act/eoa1984250/s11.html
EOC. (n.d.). Equal Opportunity Commission. Retrieved from:
http://www.eoc.wa.gov.au/about-us/equal-opportunity-act-1984
Austlii. (n.d.). Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984 Sect19. Retrieved from:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/wa/consol_act/osaha1984273/s19.html
Your Article Library. (2017). Sources of Recruitment of Employees. Retrieved from:
Sources of Recruitment of Employees: Internal and External Sources | Recruitment