Submission: In Response to the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2013 (Commonwealth)

RLC has a particular focus on human rights and social justice, and this submission is based on Redfern Legal Centre's experience in providing free legal services to applicants in the Fair Work system. This is provided in three ways:

• The provision of advice to clients by volunteer solicitors, supervised by solicitors employed by Redfern Legal Centre;
• Casework undertaken by solicitors employed by Redfern Legal Centre. Such casework is usually provided to particularly disadvantaged clients; and
• Representation at unfair dismissal conciliations under the Unfair Dismissal Representation Scheme, which is a partnership between Clayton Utz and Redfern Legal Centre. Under that scheme, solicitors are seconded by Clayton Utz to Redfern Legal Centre, and those seconded solicitors provide advice and representation to applicants in unfair dismissal matters, under the supervision of a solicitor employed by Redfern Legal Centre. 

Redfern Legal Centre also advises and represents clients in discrimination complaints against employers and other respondents. 

RLC's view in summary

Redfern Legal Centre supports the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2012 and makes the following comments in relation to aspects which are relevant to the experience of our clients. These are:

• Right to request a flexible working arrangement 

Redfern Legal Centre supports the broadening of reasons for requesting flexible working hours, especially where the employee has a disability or is experiencing family violence. We recommend the Bill be strengthened to place a positive obligation on the employer to enable flexible working arrangements or returning to work part time. 

• Bullying in the workplace

Bullying in the workplace is destructive to the victim's sense of self, dignity, morale and confidence, and the associated costs are significant. In the experience of RLC, victims of workplace bullying face significant hurdles to stop workplace bullying. This is primarily due to existing modes of redress for victims being reactive and ineffective in the control of the risks of bullying behavior. We support reforms to the Fair Work Act 2009 to implement mechanisms for victims to gain access to orders which stop this type of behavior before it escalates and causes significant harm.