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Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard has today announced further Government support for ongoing training and education to assist both employers and employees with the operation of Australia's new Fair Work system.

Fair Work Week has been held from 4 to 8 January to highlight key elements of the new national workplace relations system, Fair Work.

The Acting Prime Minister was invited to Brisbane to launch the Council of Small Business Organisation’s (COSBOA) video guides to the Fair Work system.

These guides and a range of other useful resources targeted to the needs of small business are now available on COSBOA’s Fair Work for Small Business website. The video guides are now available in 4 community languages.

The Acting Prime Minister said that the Government had allocated almost $30 million dollars for training, information and education for employers and employees.

The activities continue to assist in the transition to the Government's new fairer, simpler, modern and more efficient national workplace relations system.

This is real, practical training and education being delivered to boardrooms and the shop floor by the Fair Work Ombudsman, employer groups and trade unions.

The Government is serious about ensuring all employers and employees having access to the tools they need as the new system gets up and running.

The innovative approach taken by COSBOA to providing valuable, practical information to small businesses, in a convenient and accessible way, including in community languages is certainly welcomed by the Government.

Fair Work Week has shown the tremendous value of the training and education delivered to date as well as the thirst for more during the first few years of the operation of the new laws.

The Acting Prime Minister contrasted the Government’s factual, on the ground and low cost approach with the Work Choices style mouse pads and pens extravaganza.

Unlike Tony Abbott's Liberals $121 million of taxpayer’s money was wasted on the Work Choices advertising blitzkrieg. This Government’s focus is on supporting practical training and information for employers and employees alike.
 
Taxpayers continue to foot the bill for the Liberal’s extravagance with the ongoing storage of 5 pallets of propaganda, containing over 34,000 Work Choices mouse pads which nobody wants.

Taxpayers cannot in good faith continue to pay for this Liberal Party excess – the Government is therefore calling on the Liberal Party to pay for the storage of the mouse pads in the future.

Alternatively, the Liberal Party can take them off taxpayer’s hands for use in the next election campaign.

The Government’s $30 million education and training plan is being rolled out across the country.

• Funding of almost $10 million has already been provided to employer organisations and $2.5 million to the Australian Council of Trade Unions for the Fair Work Education and Information Program (a list of participating organisations is attached below). Already over 1700 workshops and seminars have been delivered across Australia with a further 600 to come in the months ahead.
• Other innovative education activities funded through this Program include:
• COSBOA’s Fair Work for Small Business website, www.fairworkforsmallbusiness.com.au. This website has a range of useful materials tailored to the needs of small business, including interactive webinars and video guides;
• A mail out by Telstra to 900,000 of its business customers alerting them to the  Fair Work changes and directing them to COSBOA’s Fair Work for Small Business website for further information and access to webinars;
• Industry specific training materials and telephone advice services.
• A further $3.7 million has been allocated to fund almost 50,000 Education Visits by the Fair Work Ombudsman. Staff will visit businesses in person to make sure they have all the information they need about the new system. The visits will focus on these small businesses entering the national system for the first time; and
• The establishment of a designated small business unit education unit in the Fair Work Ombudsman at a cost of over $500,000.  Guides and fact sheets targeted to small business are now available on www.fairwork.gov.au.

Reinforcing the Government’s commitment to ensuring that employers and employees have ready access to training and information and education on the new Fair Work system, the Acting Prime Minister announced that the next phase of activities will include:

• a $10 million grant to the Union Education Foundation, a non-profit education trust administered by a board comprised of union and employer representatives, to develop and deliver national workplace education programs for employee representatives; and
• $2.7 million for initiatives for small business, including targeted information activities and the employment of specialist Fair Work Liaison Advisers by the Fair Work Ombudsman and relevant employer organisations to undertake co-ordinated information and educative activities in specific industry sectors identified as being most in need of targeted information.

Consistent with the requirements of the Commonwealth Grant Guidelines all funding grants are underpinned by a funding agreement including approval, reporting and auditing requirements to ensure that all funding is being used for appropriate training and education purposes.

This additional package of training and education initiatives builds on the extensive information on the Fair Work system already made publicly available by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Fair Work Week has been successful in highlighting to employers and employees the benefits of the new national workplace relations system and in ensuring they know where to go to get practical, accurate information about how the new laws will affect them.

More information about the new workplace relations system or about information sessions or webinars in your area is available at www.fairwork.gov.au or by calling the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94.

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