The Fair Work Commission President, Justice Iain Ross has launched the second stage of the Commission’s change program, Future Directions.
The Future Directions initiatives aim to improve access to justice and support workplace productivity through engagement with industry.
This next phase of the on-going change program features 30 initiatives, which will be delivered over the next two years.
Justice Ross said the second phase of Future Directions built on the foundations laid in 2013, further developing initiatives already delivered and introducing many new ones.
“When we launched Future Directions in October 2012 we set ourselves the ambitious target of delivering 25 initiatives by December 2013. I am pleased to say that we successfully achieved that goal,” said Justice Ross.
“Now after a period of review and reflection we are ready to begin the next phase of our change program, this time over a two-year period. The key difference with this second stage of Future Directions is that all of the ideas and initiatives have been generated from the ground up, either from the Commission’s Members and staff or our stakeholders who have identified ways we can better meet the changing needs of the community we serve.”
The new initiatives include the introduction of an electronic case management system to reduce costs and improve processing times, a review of the process for determining enterprise agreement approval applications, a qualitative research project to identify clauses in enterprise agreements that enhance productivity or innovation, and the implementation of a strategy for the promotion of cooperative and productive workplace relations that facilitate change and foster innovation.
While the Commission has identified 30 initiatives it will complete over the next two years, Justice Ross said the change program was be flexible enough to adapt to the changing needs of the community, with further projects able to be included.