EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Minute No. 9 of 2015 – Minister for Employment
Subject -
Fair Work Amendment Act 2015
Fair Work Amendment Commencement Proclamation 2015
Subsection 2(1) of the Fair Work Amendment Act 2015 (the Act) provides that Part 10 of Schedule 1 to the Act commences on a day to be fixed by proclamation. However, if any of the provisions do not commence within six months of the date the Act receives Royal Assent, then those provisions commence on the first day after the end of that six month period. The Act received Royal Assent on 26 November 2015.
The purpose of the Proclamation is to fix 1 January 2016 as the day on which Part 10 of Schedule 1 to the Act commences.
The Act makes amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Fair Work Act) to implement elements of The Coalition’s Policy to Improve the Fair Work Laws. Specifically, the Act amends the Fair Work Act to provide for the Fair Work Ombudsman to pay interest on unclaimed monies.
Section 559 of the Fair Work Act allows an employer to pay an amount to the Commonwealth that would otherwise be owed to a former employee. Section 559 applies to certain amounts, such as wages, that have been unclaimed by the former employee, whom the employer can no longer contact. Payment of the amount to the Commonwealth discharges the employer’s obligation to pay the money to the former employee. The former employee can then later claim the money from the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Part 10 of Schedule 1 to the Act provides that in some circumstances the Fair Work Ombudsman must also pay an amount of interest to the former employee. New subsection 559(3A) provides that interest is payable where the Fair Work Ombudsman pays an amount under subsection 559(3) that is $100 or more and has been held in the Consolidated Revenue Fund for six months or more.
New subsection 559(3B) confers on the Minister the power to make an instrument that determines the method for calculating interest payable to the former employee in these circumstances. Amended subsection 559(4) preserves the appropriation of the Consolidated Revenue Fund for subsection 559(3) and does not expand that appropriation.
The Proclamation is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.
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| Authority: | Subsection 2(1) of the Fair Work Amendment Act 2015 |