WorkChoices gains Royal Assent

The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, the Hon. Kevin Andrews MP, has announced that the Australian Government’s WorkChoices reform programme has been given Royal Assent.

Notably this means that:

1. The Australian Fair Pay Commission will now come into effect and Professor Ian Harper will become its Chairman.
2. Small businesses with 15 or less employees will be exempt from redundancy pay. This is in line with the Government’s election commitment to preserve the status quo so that redundancy pay obligations contained in an award made before the AIRC’s decision on 26 March, 2004 are not affected.
3. The bulk of the WorkChoices Act will be proclaimed in March 2006.