Redundancy, Retirement, Retraining and Apprenticeship

1. Redundancy, Retirement, Retraining and Apprenticeship

2. Apprenticeships • Apprenticeships are covered as contract of service • Terms and Conditions • Industrial and Commercial Training Act 1989 (NSW) • Benefits for Parties • Apprenticeship Committees • Technological Advances

3. Case Study: • Condell Park Factory • Details • Joel Exner • Details • Compensation

4. The Impact of Technology on the Workplace • Increases efficiency of the rate at which a role is performed • Reduces the complexity of particular jobs • Improved working conditions • Improved occupational safety in formerly dangerous occupations • Altered work patterns due to increased contractibility

5. Negative Impact of Technology • Occupational overuse syndrome- a condition caused by the repetition of motions performed in the workplace (e.g. persistent use of a computer) • An increase in the prevalence of redundancies as technology often replaces the labour element of a role • Infringement on personal liberty

6. Redundancy • Redundancy occurs when an employee is dismissed as a result of the work for a particular position no longer being available • A primary cause of redundancy is the advancement in technology to perform particular roles at a more efficient rate than capable of a human

7. Workplace Relations Act 1997 (Cwlth) • Requires than an employee notify the Commonwealth Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business if they intend on making fifteen or more workers redundant • Required to provide details regarding the reasons for the redundancy, number of employees affected and amount of notice provided.

8. An employee who has been made redundant is entitled to severance pay • The minimum amounts of redundancy to be paid are outlined in the Workplace Relations Act 1996 • WorkChoices: redundancy pay is no longer an allowable matterif an employer has less than fifteen employees

9. Voluntary redundancy is offered by an employer to allow an employee to choose to be made redundant • This is a financially beneficial option to those who are close to retirement or whose labour is in high demand • An employer may offer a higher severance pay than required in order to encourage workers to leave

10. Employment Protection Act 1982 (NSW) • Requires that companies give advanced warning of redundancy to the NSWIRC → required to conciliate any dispute concerning dismissals for redundancy and award severance benefits • NSWIRC may include employment protection provisions within an award

11. Some companies are unable to adequately prepare for the possibility of their employees being made redundant → HIH collapsed in 2001: thousands of workers were left redundant without receiving redundancy payments

12. Retraining • There is a growing requirement for employees to enhance and update their skills and knowledge as technological change is continuous within the workplace →often achieved through attending a training course • If the role of an individual has been replaced by mechanisation, they may be required to retrain for a new job

13. The retraining of existing staff for new roles as opposed to the employment of individuals with new skills is prevalent within the workplace

15. The retirement happens mostly due to the employees’ ages (usually 65(men), 60(women)) • Anti-Discrimination Act 1977(NSW) Prohibits employers forcing their employees to retire due to their age • People with mental or physical disability can be lawfully dismissed by the employers Eg) Pilots • Federal legislation has set the maximum age for certain occupations in awards and in legislation

16. Technological change: Due to the development of medical technology, people started to live longer which resulted in people working beyond the traditional ‘retiring age’. • Some legislations have combated this with superannuation

17. The Tri-star incident, 2001 • Tri-star, a car component making company, supplies the most of the car manufacturers in Australia. • It refused to sign an agreement that protects the entitlement of the employees even if when the business ever went bankrupt which resulted in those employees going on strike in protest.

18. Tri-star failed to produce goods and production in the car factories ceased which resulted in the manufacturers losing several million dollars every day. • Tri-star stood down thousands of employees from the idle production plants; under the award the companies had the right to do this.

19. Justice: The Tri-Star Incident • Fairness – Tri-star had refused to sign the agreement that protected the entitlement of employees; however, the law allowed this company to do so which was unfair

20. Justice • Areas where Justice is seen: - Fairness – Individuals compensation - Fairness – Workplace relations Act 1996(Cwlth) • Employers are re-training employees rather than making them redundant • Justice is not seen: • Equality - Lawful Dismissal • Human Rights/Fairness – Condell Park incident and Exner- negligence and lack of protection • Equality – Younger people Technology • Fairness – Bankruptcy and Market Failure

21. Effectiveness • Access – Apprenticeships • Fairness – Apprenticeships • Individual Human Rights – Retirement (unfair dismissal) • Fairness– Retirement (medical technology- rising life expectancy, increase in pension) -Exnerapprenticeship- protection • Reflection of Community – Retraining (failure to train causes structural unemployment- poverty) • Resource Efficiency – Retraining (CentreLink and Job Network- reduce natural rate of unemployment)

22. The End Thank you