Lotu-Iiga Sam: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLotu-Iiga Sam: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 30 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:438. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (Minister of Corrections)on behalf of theMinister for Workplace Relations and Safety: I move That the Employment Relations Amendment Bill be now read a third time. This bill implements the Government’s policies aimed at a flexible and fair employment relations framework. At its core this bill is about ensuring employers have the confidence to compete and expand while maintaining key protections for employees. The Government is committed to maintaining the framework for collective bargaining. The bill increases choice and flexibility in this framework reduces ineffective bargaining and improves fairness and balance in bargaining requirements. To prevent unnecessary and protracted collective bargaining the bill amends the Act so that a collective agreement is not required for bargaining to be concluded. It enables the parties to apply to the Employment Relations Authority for a determination that bargaining has concluded. The bill provides employers and employees with more flexibility around the terms and conditions from the start of the employment relationship by removing the 30-day rule.The bill also acknowledges that the workplace needs to reflect modern lifestyles. The amendments give all employees the right to request flexible working arrangements right from the beginning of their employment. Flexible working arrangements help employees find the right work-life balance for them and their employer and can also improve productivity. These changes aim to improve participation in the labour market by people who would otherwise not be able to work because of competing responsibilities. The bill makes some changes intended to make clear what confidential information an employer does and does not have to provide in situations such as potential redundancies or disciplinary processes. These changes ensure a balance between employees’ rights to information and their rights to privacy.In 2012 the Government completed a review of the continuity of employment provisions in Part 6A in the Employment Relations Act. The review found significant operational issues for businesses. The problems came from transferring employees’ entitlements and information to a new employer. Some of the provisions were particularly onerous for small and medium sized enterprises. The bill aims to fix these issues and it will give more certainty and clarity to employers and keep key benefits for affected employees. The bill makes the rest and meal break rules in the Employment Relations Act more flexible. It maintains the importance of rest and meal breaks while making sure that they are practical for each workplace. The bill encourages employers and employees to negotiate in good faith the timing and duration of rest and meal breaks that are cognisant of the nature of that business. Finally the bill introduces requirements for when and how the Employment Relations Authority must give determinations in order to speed up those determinations.To conclude this bill provides a package of measures that will enhance the employment relations framework. The bill was the subject of extensive scrutiny by the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee and I would like to thank the members of that committee for their work on the bill. I would also like to thank all of the officials who worked so hard in the advancing of this bill. I commend this bill to the House.