You need to put in place, a system for being informed when these changes happen:

• Subscribe to updates of Modern Awards that apply to the employees within your business.
• Subscribe to the Fair Work newsletter and other updates.
• Utilise the business.gov.au website information and resources, as well as the one relevant to the state or territory in which you operate (e.g. business.vic.gov.au, business.sa.gov.au).
• Subscribe to receive newsletters from reputable information sources, such as FC Business Solutions.
• Franchise Council of Australia’s HR service, your industry body’s HR advisors.

When a legislative change is passed through parliament (and bear in mind when you first hear about changes, they are often proposals that need to go through the parliamentary process), then update all of your manuals immediately.

You need to inform all of your team members about any changes to their entitlements, and the best way to do this is to put the updated manual on your intranet, and make the changes mandated reading for all staff (a good intranet will track who has read the manual and any updates).

Keeping across all the changes in employment law is tricky, but acknowledging that this is something that must be done, and allowing the time to be allocated to it, is a good start. Whether it’s you as the business owner, or someone you nominate, a good process of information gathering, coupled with immediate manual updates and distribution, will keep you off Fair Work’s radar.