So, commentators are all over the oft-used “VUCA” style challenges that businesses in particular are facing. Yet generation on generation would claim that the environment within which we operate is more “volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous” than what preceded it.
Furthermore, as is seemingly required currently, everything and everyone needs some sort of label, some sort of identity – a clustering together under a badge that ironically could be argued in some areas of society to reduce the very diversity of thought and identity it alleges to protect and promote. New labels and acronyms are everywhere, some helpful, some not. In the area of work ethic and the similar, but distinct, area of work ethics, we have “Fire” (“financially independent retire early”) – a movement that can result in younger generations syndicating their own time, taking multiple jobs to increase earnings but with limited or no loyalty to any single employer.
“Quiet quitting” is a label and actual phenomenon that has risen post the perspective challenging Covid-19, causing many to simply adopt the bare minimum, disengaged approach to work and dampening ambition (but not changing jobs in a volatile economic environment).
Uncertainty, volatility and then the very labels that are produced to seemingly help us understand the world around us are together not new. What is new is the pace and increased speed of change in work ethics and work ethic, which businesses now have to proactively and often reactively tackle to remain productive and successful. This pace is no better seen in the area of work ethics and how then these are being manifested in regulation and laws governing businesses.
Australian businesses are facing an unprecedented barrage of regulatory and legislative measures that simply make it harder to do business, albeit maybe to do better business. Sure, for years, there has been a steady expanse of organisation-impacting waves of governance-promoting measures from the now-given occupational health and safety to the more recent wave of inclusion and diversity. But in the area of industrial relations (IR) and employee ways of working, we face a genuine time of VUCA but with an accelerated pace.
If you’re an employer of casual or part-time resources, you will now need to be very clear on what your obligations are to convert such employees into permanency. As many casual, modern award-governed staff are aware, this doesn’t always mean being better off, for example, a casual losing the 25 per cent casual loading on hourly rates afforded by the modern awards but not afforded if permanent.
You need to be up to speed on the current three-year pilot in Victoria entitled, the “Sick Pay Guarantee” which means in real terms, casual and part-time staff who normally wouldn’t qualify for sick pay, now do for up to 38 hours per year, funded by the State Government under the pilot. Undoubtedly, this is just the thin end of the wedge in terms of full rollout, employer funded, and sure to catch the eye of other states.
For all permanent staff, you will need to be very clear on policies around carrying over sick pay entitlements year on year, carrying over/enforcing/encouraging annual leave, accruing and taking long service leave. Some of these entitlements and the way they work are unique to Australia and in practice often result in staff using as “nest egg” pay-out inflators on exit versus using them when they might best be needed.
While the above examples are just some of the regulatory policies that can catch employers out unwittingly in the courts – and in their balance sheets – some new measures are best captured in the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Act 2023 involving IR legislative plans of the current Federal Government. While, on the whole, there are fewer new measures than the media would suggest, what is changing are the penalties for breaches. Fines and custodial sentences for breaches will grow exponentially under the new laws. Employers must study and understand the implications of the legislation and what it means for your business. Do you need to change systems so “loopholes” can never occur? Do you need to change behaviours so loopholes are never exploited or unwittingly used? Relying on the unaccountable defence of taking your HR business partner’s advice, will not be sufficient as managers, business leaders and directors will be more culpable.
Even as recently as during the last two weeks, we have seen the next tranche of the Federal Government IR legislation include a proposal to prevent out-of-hours contact by managers with their staff. Once again, employers and business leaders writ large, will need to get their heads around this to prevent unwitting breaches of the legislation or worse, systemic ignoring of the new protections. See David Marin-Guzman’s column in the AFR here.
So, like it or loathe it, employers and business leaders need to now “suck it up”. Whether you are a manager, a leader or a director, you need to adapt your businesses around the widespread pace of change. Not only developments in work ethic but even more importantly, the changes in work ethics that then manifest in actual working practices that are being upheld by legislation. Some would say it might be now easier to do better business, but some would say it might now be harder to do business at all.
- Contact Matt Lloyd at mlloyd@sfamc.com.au if outsourcing can help you navigate the above changes.
