Launch of amended policies
The Workplace Relations Team has recently completed an overhaul of our current policy templates. Due to the current legislative changes and introduction of new legal requirements and responsibilities under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) and Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), previous policy templates no longer reflect the current legislative requirements and should be reviewed or redacted within practices.
The new legislative changes affect the Leave Policy and the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and Discrimination Policy templates.
The Leave Policy has been amended to reflect the changes to Family and Domestic Violence Leave and flexible work arrangements. The EEO and Discrimination Policy amendments include new protected attributes on:
- breastfeeding
- gender identity
- intersex status
- prevention of unlawful discrimination, bullying, harassment, vilification and victimisation
- include protections for workers, prospective workers and persons conducting or undertaking a business from sexual harassment in the workplace.
Business owners hold responsibilities around the distribution and accessibility of practice policies.
- The policy needs to be accessible to all employees.
- The policies should be read and understood by all employees.
- Employees need to provide written acknowledgement that they have read and understood each policy.
Implementation of policy/procedures and other guiding documentation is critical to mitigating risk at a practice.
The WR team will be notifying subscribers to the Workplace Relations Toolkit who would have received policy templates when they signed up each time a template has been updated and will issue the new policy to them. As an extra level of support from the WR team, we will be providing members with additional education through Lunch and Learn sessions throughout the year, as well as providing practices with WR ‘Health Checks’ and general check-ins.
Lunch and Learn Sessions
As part of our duty to keep Toolkit subscribers informed on changes to legislation, the Workplace Relations Team has started weekly lunch and learn sessions for all subscribers to the Workplace Relations Toolkit Subscription and for those who have purchased our policy templates or manuals in the past. These sessions are free for all AMA Queensland members and practice managers.
Learn more about Lunch and Learn sessions
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If you would like to know more about our policy templates or lunch and learn sessions, please contact us via phone (07) 3872 2222 and email workplacerelations@amaq.com.au. |
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Workplace Relations Toolkit |
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Workplace Relations Consultancy Workplace Relations Consultancy can review your current policies and provide advice on what should be updated or amended to remain legally compliant. |
