Industry business

Queensland Government
Report
Business Communication and Technologies

[Type the author name]
4/1/2014

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction:
This document shows the correct workplace practices with outlining the problems, identifying and analysing all of the issues. This report also helps you to know about your right and responsibilities such as pay, awards and agreements in your workplace. In Australia, work and pay conditions are legislated to be fair for employees and employers. If these conditions are not met, then a course of action must be followed to correct the situation.
2.0 Issues:
2.1 Pay: Carla is working from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm daily, five days a week. She does not get paid for her lunch and therefore you work an 8 hour day. Her pay has not risen since starting, and her current rate of pay is $7.80 per hour.
2.2 Award and Agreement: Carla’s friend has higher pay than her, and she is working under the workplace agreement
2.3 Unfair Dismissal: Carla’s company has over 500 people. Her employer threatened you with dismissal if she did not stop complaining about her pay. She always late for work and regularly leave before the scheduled closing time. She also phones her friend for a chat when business is slow, and whilst chatting, the pair often criticise and gossip about their bosses and related work issues.
2.4 Equal Employment and Opportunity: Carla’s colleague was given job because her employer believes that males are better drivers and are less likely to go off and have children.
2.5 Sexual Harassment: Carla’s regional manager always invades her personal space and has a habit of touching you gently on different parts of the body
2.6 Union: Carla’s are not a member of a union.

3.0 Analysis:
3.1 Pay:
Carla is working under the General Retail Industry Award 2010 (code: MA000004). Based on this award detail, she is working too long (8 hours/day). She is a full-time employee and she is engaged to work an average of 38 hours per week so it means you only work for 7.6 hours each day. And employees, who have worked in excess of the ordinary hours of work, outside the span of hours (excluding shiftwork), are to be paid at time and a half for the first three hours and double time thereafter. Carla must be paid for the lunch break because she are working 9 hours per day, so she would have one meal break of at least 30 minutes but not more than 60 minutes, and two 10 minutes rest breaks. These tables below show Carla’s rate of pay and the following percentage of the appropriate wage rate in this award:
Classifications
Per week
Retail Employee Level 1
683.40
Retail Employee Level 2
699.70
Retail Employee Level 3
710.60
Retail Employee Level 4
724.50
Retail Employee Level 5
754.30
Retail Employee Level 6
765.20
Retail Employee Level 7
803.50
Retail Employee Level 8
836.20

Age
% of weekly rate of pay
Under 16 years of age
45
16 years of age
50
17 years of age
60
18 years of age
70
19 years of age
80
20 years of age
90

Carla is working as a shop assistant, so her classification is level 1. Based on the information in the above tables, Carla’s correct rate of pay should be $410.04 per week, which is $10.79 per hour. She is working under the state award, so her rate of pay must be increased this year – this is based on her age. An ombudsman is responsible for compliance with federal workplace relations law and education both employees and employers about their rights and responsibilities. The Fair Work Ombudsman is responsible for promoting harmonious, productive and cooperative workplace relations and ensuring compliance with Commonwealth workplace laws. So if she does not know where to go, she should contact to a fair work ombudsman.
3.2 Award and Agreement:
An ‘award’ is how much you get paid. It’s a legal minimum standard rate decided by the government. All employers must pay at least minimum award to their employees. The National Employment Standards (also known as NES) are a safety net of 10 minimum entitlements for employees in the national workplace relations system. The NES affects to Carla, because she is working full-time and she is working as the shop assistant in Queensland.
Carla’s friend, who works as a shop assistant for another firm, has higher pay than her, and she is working under the workplace agreement. There are two type of agreement in the workplace; there are certified agreements and enterprise agreements. Certified agreements are made under Queensland state law exclusively for state and local government employees. A certified agreement can effectively replace the award and ‘stand-alone’ or it can operate in conjunction with the relevant award, providing it meets the ‘better off overall’ test.
Enterprise agreements set out conditions of employment for a group of employees at one or more workplaces. Enterprise agreement will apply instead of a modern award. (Awards & agreements | Employing people)
Because the pay rate in an enterprise agreement cannot be less than the pay rate in the relevant modern award, employees have an agreement rather than work under the award. But somehow, the award is still better off overall than agreement, when employees work for a long time and their rate of pay increases each year.
3.3 Unfair dismissal:
Unfair dismissal is defined as a dismissal that is harsh, unjust or unreasonable and is not a genuine case of redundancy. It is only recognised when an employee makes an unfair dismissal remedy application and Fair Work Australia finds, according to its guidelines, no valid cause for the dismissal.
Carla was threatened by your regional manager with dismissal if she did not stop complaining about your rate of pay. In this case, Carla cannot be dismissed at present. Because she has the rights in the workplace, and this is the valid reason about her incorrect rate of pay, so her employer cannot sack her for this reason.
Carla and her employer both have rights and responsibilities in the workplace. He cannot sack Carla for her complaint about her rate of pay, but he has the right to sack Carla for other problems in the workplace such as: she is always late for work and regularly leave before the scheduled closing time; she also phones her friend for a chat when business is slow, and whilst chatting, she often criticises and gossip about her bosses and related work issues. In this case, Carla may receive a warning letter from your employer. He is required to undertake the improvements asked of Carla. This means being given adequate time to respond and further training if required. It is commonly thought that a ‘three warning’ rule exists, whereby a dismissal can happen only after three warnings. In fact, only one warning is mandatory. If the warning is in a written form, she does not have to sign it. Alternatively, she may wish to write on the warning that she disagrees with it and then signs it. Whether the warning is written or verbal, if you disagree with it, it is a good idea to do so in writing. Where a warning is disputed it will still have effect as a warning.

3.4 Equal Employment and Opportunity:
The legislation prohibits discrimination on issues such as race, gender, marital status, pregnancy, impairment, sexuality, age and religion.
Discrimination can be divided into two areas:
Direct discrimination – the less favourable treatment of an individual because of a particular attribute, such as age, gender or race.
Indirect discrimination – occurs as a result of the policies that unintentionally treat groups unfavourably because of specific attributes
Equal employment opportunity promotes equal employment opportunity (EEO) for women, and applies to private-sector organisations with 100 or more employees and all institutions of higher education; employers in these categories must report annually to the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workforce Agency (EOWA) regarding their progress on equal opportunity for women, and this report must contain an analysis of the workforce.
In your case, Carla has not been given an equal opportunity for promotion, based on her employer’s stereotyping of women. Carla has a case here, and should contact Fair Work Australia.
3.5 Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is any unwanted or unwelcome sexual behavior, which makes a person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated. Sexual harassment is not interaction, flirtation or friendship which is mutual or consensual. Sexual harassment is a type of sex discrimination. The Sex and Age Discrimination Legislation Amendment Act 2011 is the legislation to protect people who have been sexually harassed in the workplace. Carla should tell Mark to stop the harassment immediately. If he does not stop it, she may write the harasser a letter and keep the copy. Contact her supervisors, inform them as soon as possible. Preferably, tell them in writing and keep a copy of the letter with your log. It is essential that her employer have the chance to correct the problem before she can make any legal complaints. She can contact to the EEOC with her evidence, when investigating allegations of sexual harassment, the EEOC looks at the entire record and makes a determination on a case-by-case evaluation. Or Carla can speak to your human resources department or another appropriate supervisor, if these solutions are not helpful, she should go to see a lawyer.
3.6 Benefits of belonging to a union:
A Trade Union is a group of people involved in similar work or working in the same industry who have banded together for their mutual benefit in matters connected with work. The purpose of a union is to maintain and advance wage rates and working conditions of members, and to defend and promote fair and safe working conditions. Unions are funded through fees paid by members (employees). Their role in the workplace is to support employees in enterprise agreements, dispute resolution, industrial action and a range of other activities. Additionally, as part of their membership fees, and depending on their union, members receive a range of benefits including discounts and special deals. All employees have the right to join or not join a union. No one is allowed to pressure you to make a decision about joining, not joining or leaving a union.
Carla is working as a shop assistant, so she is belong to Allied Employees Association (SDA) union. If she joins a union as a member, the people from that union would take up her case to solve all of her issues in the workplace.
4.0 Conclusion:
Employees and employers have rights and responsibilities in the workplace. In this case, the employee (Carla) has not fully met her responsibilities at work. However, this can be easily amended if Carla clearly understands what is required of her and makes a commitment to follow through.
However, there are more serious breaches here. Carla’s employer has breached a number of Carla’s workplace rights, including equal opportunity, correct pay rates and conditions, and subjecting her to sexual harassment. These are serious legal issues, and the report recommends that Carla seek advice from Fair Work Australia, the relevant ombudsman or her union (if she joins) in order to address these breaches.

Bibliography
Sexual harassment. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2014, from Humanrights.gov.au: http://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/guides/sexual-harassment
(ACTU), A. c. (n.d.). Unfair Dismissal, Discrimination and Redundancy. Retrieved March 27, 2014, from actu.org.au: http://www.actu.org.au/HelpDesk/YourRightsfactsheets/UnfairDismissalDiscriminationandRedundancy.aspx
Aus Gov. (2013, Dec 30). MA000004 - General Retail Industry Award 2010. Retrieved March 29, 2014, from Fair Work Australia: https://extranet.deewr.gov.au/ccmsv8/CiLiteKnowledgeDetailsFrameset.htm?KNOWLEDGE_REF=216298&TYPE=X&ID=4053213989711648488889912894&DOCUMENT_REF=391300&DOCUMENT_TITLE=General%20Retail%20Industry%20Award%202010&DOCUMENT_CODE=MA000004
Awards & agreements | Employing people. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2014, from business.gov.au: http://www.business.gov.au/BusinessTopics/Employingpeople/Employeeentitlements/Pages/Awardsandagreements.aspx

Bibliography: Sexual harassment. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2014, from Humanrights.gov.au: http://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/guides/sexual-harassment (ACTU), A. c. (n.d.). Unfair Dismissal, Discrimination and Redundancy. Retrieved March 27, 2014, from actu.org.au: http://www.actu.org.au/HelpDesk/YourRightsfactsheets/UnfairDismissalDiscriminationandRedundancy.aspx Aus Gov. (2013, Dec 30). MA000004 - General Retail Industry Award 2010. Retrieved March 29, 2014, from Fair Work Australia: https://extranet.deewr.gov.au/ccmsv8/CiLiteKnowledgeDetailsFrameset.htm?KNOWLEDGE_REF=216298&TYPE=X&ID=4053213989711648488889912894&DOCUMENT_REF=391300&DOCUMENT_TITLE=General%20Retail%20Industry%20Award%202010&DOCUMENT_CODE=MA000004 Awards & agreements | Employing people. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2014, from business.gov.au: http://www.business.gov.au/BusinessTopics/Employingpeople/Employeeentitlements/Pages/Awardsandagreements.aspx