CODE 2, VOL 36, NO 20 : 21 november 2022

UPDATE ON RECENT AMENDMENTS TO THE INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT 2016

In July 2022, your union made submissions to the Queensland Government review of the Industrial Relations Act 2016 (the IR Act).

You can find our submissions to the Bill here.

Many positive changes have been passed into the updated IR Act, which you can view in detail here.

However, I wish to inform members of two significant changes that provide some direct benefit to your employment –

Sick leave “is, and always has been, exclusive of a public holiday that falls during the leave”:

The Queensland Employment Standards (QES) within the IR Act now explicitly prescribe that any sick leave that falls on a public holiday will not result in hours being debited from your sick leave balance.

Further, to remove any doubt, the transitional provisions in the IR Act declare that it “always has been” this way.

Sick leave and carer’s leave evidentiary requirements have been amended:

The evidentiary requirements for sick leave and carer’s leave have been amended. When you are required to take sick leave or carer’s leave for more than 2 consecutive days, you are now only required to provide ‘sufficient evidence of the illness to satisfy a reasonable person’.

This is a reduction from the current higher threshold of evidence within your Award, which requires at clause 20.3 that you provide a medical certificate from a ‘duly qualified medical practitioner’.  However, the new requirement means you can provide other sufficient evidence, including reasonable evidence from another relevant health practitioner treating you, or a statutory declaration (depending on the relevant circumstances).

It is no longer the case that you will only be considered worthy of sick leave or carer’s leave if a doctor says you are.

Your Award currently requires a medical certificate to be produced, but due to the IR Act (at sections 18(1) and 21(1)) prescribing that the QES cannot be displaced and that your Award cannot be inconsistent with the QES unless the inconsistency is more favourable, the onerous requirement to obtain a medical certificate from a doctor no longer applies to your employment.

Your Award and QFES doctrine both currently conflict with these provisions:
Both of these significant legally enforceable changes in your favour require changes to QFES doctrine (and culture) and your union will also press for amendments to your Award to reflect these new legal standards within the QES.

If you face pushback or incorrect application of these new provisions, please speak to your SCM representative about your circumstances.

John Oliver - General Secretary