Consultation in the workplace

As an employer, you will often be required to make changes to the workplace. Whether you consider these changes to be in the ordinary course of business, it often has a significant impact on your employees and therefore requires a specific process to be followed.

Employers are legally required to consult with employees concerning major changes in the workplace. What constitutes a major change is set out in legislation, Awards or Enterprise Agreements but will in all instances include changes that are likely to have a significant effect on employees such as:

• Significant changes in the size of the workforce i.e. redundancies
• Altering working hours
• Job restructuring; and
• Change of work locations.

During the consultation process, the employer is required to:

1. Notify each employee, or group of employees, who may be affected by the major change. This includes notifying their representative, if any
2. Discuss the proposed changes with affected employees
3. Provide the affected employees with information about the major change, how it may affect the employees and mechanisms the employer will implement to mitigate the impact on employees.
4. Consider the matters raised by affected employees during the consultation, before making a decision
5. Inform the affected employees as soon as possible of decisions made following the consultation.

WorkSafe ACT has released a video resource to demonstrate what it views as meaningful consultation, which can be found here.

Employers should not be opposed to the consultation process, but rather implement a cooperative process that involves employees in its decision-making and ensures transparency in the workplace.

If you have any questions or need further guidance, please don’t hesitate to contact our Workplace Relations team:

📞 (02) 6175 5900
📧 workplace@mba.org.au