New Industrial Relations Regulations to assist with transition

WALGA’s ongoing advocacy with the State Government has successfully resulted in the making of a new regulation to assist Local Governments with the transition to the State industrial relations (IR) system.

On Friday 18 November, the Industrial Relations (General) Amendment Regulations 2022 (WA) were made as published in the Government Gazette.

On 1 January 2023 the Industrial Relations (General) Regulations 1997 (WA) will provide for the following:
  1. For the purposes of section 80A(2)(b) of the Industrial Relations Act 1979 (WA) (IR Act), the day fixed for the purposes of the declaration is 1 January 2023.
  2. For the purposes of section 80BB(4) of the IR Act, while the new State instrument is in force an award does not apply to the declared employer and declared employees, unless the new State instrument provides otherwise.
The regulation in paragraph 1 confirms the relevant day fixed in the Federal Government declaration will be 1 January 2023. This is consistent with the State Government’s messaging that the transition of Local Governments from the Federal to the State IR system will occur on 1 January 2023.

The regulation in paragraph 2 means that your Local Government will not have to apply the terms of any State awards from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2024 while your new State instrument is in force.

A reminder that on transition (if the following currently apply to your workforce in the Federal IR system):
  • the Federal Local Government Industry Award 2020 will become a new State instrument which will be recognised as an industrial agreement under the IR Act and will continue to apply to your Local Government, and/or
  • a Federally registered enterprise agreement (whether it has passed its nominal expiry date or not), will become a new State instrument (industrial agreement under the IR Act) and will continue to apply to your Local Government.  
The regulation in paragraph 2 was secured through WALGA’s ongoing advocacy with the State Government to proactively address potential transitional issues, including issues arising from the application of section 41(9) of the IR Act.

Section 41(9) of the IR Act provides: “To the extent that an industrial agreement is contrary to or inconsistent with an award, the industrial agreement prevails unless the agreement expressly provides otherwise.”

Resources for subscribers

Presentation on preparing for the State IR transition

Last week WALGA delivered a presentation on preparing for the State IR transition. The PowerPoint slides from the presentation are published on the subscriber resources section of the WALGA website here.

If you were unable to attend the presentation and have questions about the transition, please email WALGA ER to express your interest in attending a meeting with our team to discuss preparing for the transition. We have been speaking to a number of Local Governments either individually or in groups via MS Teams.
 
Record keeping in the State IR system webinar

The webinar held on 15 November was recorded and has been published along with the PowerPoint Slides on the subscriber resources section of the WALGA website here.
 
If you have any questions about this update, please email WALGA Employee Relations or call 1300 366 956.