Employee Protection. There are some restrictions for employees who want to apply for Better Off Overall Test (BOOT). They are required to be technically qualified to form this contract. It was felt during this analysis that employees are not comfortable with this qualification restriction, therefore, it is recommended that it should be removed with immediate effect. By removing this restriction, it is possible that employees can apply for this test and agreement in a more convenient manner than before.
There is no relaxation included in the clause of this fair act for employees who are disabled. It has been found that employees who are disabled find it very difficult to follow this entire procedure and often opt to stay out of it. Even if they are technically eligible to get the contract, they would avoid it for saving the cost and time issues associated with it. Therefore, this standard contract should include some benefits or relaxation for such disable employees who manage to pass the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT).
Apart from such obvious issues, some technical limitations have also been observed in this test. As far as dismissal is concerned, if employees having EBA contract feel that they have been dismissed unjustly, they are given the opportunity to contact the commission within 14 days of this dismissal. Employees have complained to the correspondent of this report that they find this time to be inadequate. The time for this should be about three week i.e. 21 days rather than 14 days. Therefore, it is recommended that this time may be extended immediately while keeping in mind the betterment of employees.
It has also been noted that commission had done nothing to ensure that men and women are paid same amount of salary in case they have same qualification. This is a serious drawback noted in fair act 2009 which could jeopardize the whole act. Therefore, to resolve this important issue, the commission should include clauses for equal pays other than equal employment opportunities. This would surely cause women to come out of small industries and work at a good office.
There is an undue clause of finding a male comparator if females want to sign EBA contract. They should make sure that they could give an example of a male colleague having same set of qualifications as his education. This is just an irrational requirement made to make sure that even female employees could get a referral from male colleagues. It is recommended to make sure that this practice is stopped immediately.
In case of any complaint against the organization or sexual harassment faced from a fellow employee, the commission should offer complimentary services to employees rather than making a law about it. The advantage of this practice is that fair commission might take a long time to find legal jurisdiction for any such law. However, if they could provide some complimentary services to the employees, it would not only benefit the employees but also the fair commission itself. Therefore, it is recommended that fair commission initiates some complimentary services in favour of employees who are in contract with them.
In case of dismissal which is not based on fair grounds, it has been mentioned specifically that employee needs to have a long employment record so that a complaint could be filed. This is an unnecessary condition which should be stopped immediately. Even if employee has not worked for long, it does not mean that no injustice could be faced in terms of termination from a job. It is being recommended that commission removes this condition and restates the claws to make sure that all employees could get benefits from it.
It is also recommended that instead of going for a test of employees before they could form a contract with them, the fair commission should get involved in forming a basic structure for every type of job and make sure that minimum wages are in accordance with the Australian law. In this way, it is felt that more employees would be able to find a way to take advantage of the benefits offered by this contract. The authority should be given to a separate commission or body to implement the laws and make sure that it does not violate the laws at all.
As far as ambiguity of Better Off Overall Test (BOOT) is concerned, some steps could be taken to reduce the confusion among employees. This ambiguity could be resolved by taking a “no advantage test” instead of Better Off Overall Test (BOOT). This would ensure that employees are able to take better care of their benefits and could get better salaries with the help of simple contracts signed between them and could immediately get employed after making contracts with fair commission.
The penalty rates for employees in case they do not get their contract renewed immediately should be reduced. It is felt that they are a huge burden upon employees in addition to the fees charged from employees for conducting the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT). It is recommended that by removing them, commission would make sure that employees could work with full productivity.
