Take account of social and cultural considerations and broader organisational policies that affect staff rosters
Organisational policies
As highlighted in section 1.1, there are a wide range of organisational policies and procedures that have to be taken into consideration when developing a roster. Many of these policies have to abide by relevant industrial agreements, such as the Fair Work Act 2009 and awards related to the industry.
Policies that affect staff rosters include:
➢ Annual leave
➢ Personal/carer’s leave and compassionate leave
➢ Public holidays
➢ Parental leave and related entitlements
➢ Mandated breaks
➢ Maximum allowed shift hours
➢ Permanent or casual staff
➢ Standard, overtime and penalty pay rates.
In addition to industry wide policies, your workplace may also administer further policies for the above areas that will impact on staff rosters.
For example, in relation to annual leave, policies may state:
➢ The length of time you are expected to provide notice
➢ To whom you are to request or report annual leave
➢ The maximum number of successive days off
➢ The maximum number of employees who can take annual leave simultaneously.
Jury service
A further consideration when developing rosters is responding to employees who have been selected for duty service. Individuals who have been summoned to jury service should provide the operations manager or any other relevant person with as much prior notice as possible that they will be absent from work. This will make it easier to adjust any rosters that the employee is listed on. They should provide details about the predicted length of time that the service will last, if known.
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The Fair Work Act 2009 also states the following:
➢ Full-time and part-time staff required to attend jury service should be reimbursed for their normal working hours – employers should pay the difference between payment from the courts and their usual rate of pay
➢ Employers may require:
o employees to demonstrate that they have taken all reasonable steps to obtain all payments that they are entitled to from the courts
o employees to provide proof of the total amount of payment they have received for their service
➢ The employer is only obliged to reimburse the employee for the first 10 days that they are absent for jury service.
Cultural considerations
Anti-discrimination
According to federal and state laws, it is against the law for employers to allow discrimination and harassment to take place within their organisations. This includes both discrimination against employees and customers.
It is important for all employees, and especially managers, to have a strong knowledge of relevant national and State or Territory policies.
Australian Human Rights Commission
The Australian Human Rights Commission is a national human rights institution. It is funded by the Australian Government, although operates independently. Their main aim is to lead the protection of human rights in Australia.
This is achieved through:
➢ Making human rights values central to everyday life and language
➢ Empowering individuals to understand and exercise their human rights
➢ Working with individuals, communities, businesses and government to encourage action
➢ Keeping government answerable to national and international human rights standards.
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The Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 makes it unlawful to discriminate because of:
➢ Race
➢ Colour
➢ Sex
➢ Religion
➢ Political opinion (in employment only)
➢ National extraction or social origin
➢ Age
➢ Medical record
➢ Irrelevant criminal record (in employment only)
➢ Impairment
➢ Marital status
➢ Mental, intellectual or psychiatric disability
➢ Nationality
➢ Physical disability
➢ Sexual preference (in employment only)
➢ Trade union activity (in employment only).
State and Territory boards and commissions
Each State and Territory has an anti-discrimination agency that you should refer to for further information and regarding appropriate workplace actions including the steps required if you need to make a complaint.
Laws that operate at a state and territory level:
➢ Australian Capital Territory – Discrimination Act 1991
➢ New South Wales – Anti-Discrimination Act 1977
➢ Northern Territory – Anti-Discrimination Act 1996
➢ Queensland – Anti-Discrimination Act 1991
➢ South Australia – Equal Opportunity Act 1984
➢ Tasmania – Anti-Discrimination Act 1998
➢ Victoria – Equal Opportunity Act 2010
➢ Western Australia – Equal Opportunity Act 1984.
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Preventing discrimination when rostering
You must try and treat all employees equally. There may be certain shifts that employees prefer not to work in comparison to others, and you attempt to split such shifts equally among staff as this will prevent any accusations of discriminations. This may, for example, include needing people to work on public holidays, on night shifts, or at weekends.
Further to this, you should appreciate any religious holidays or practices that may result in workers wanting their shifts to be altered.
This may include:
➢ Sabbath days
➢ Prayer times
➢ Ramadan.
Social considerations
There are also social considerations involving employees and rostering. One of the vital needs when developing a schedule for employees is to keep them happy, whereby they can work effectively while fulfilling their social needs and responsibilities.
Social considerations may include:
➢ Parental responsibilities – employees may have
responsibilities involving children, such as picking
them up from school, and therefore may want to base
their shifts around this time
➢ Caring duties – individuals may have the need to care
for family members or friends who are ill or injured
➢ Leisure activities – employees are likely to take part in
leisure activities outside of work. Arranging a roster so
that an employee can have particular days or times of
the day off can keep them happy.
You should attempt to keep all employees satisfied by listening and responding to their cultural and social needs.
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Activity 1E
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1.6 – Consult with colleagues to ensure input into rosters
Consultation with colleagues
It has been mentioned that the development of rosters can have a knock on effect on the overall morale and happiness of employees; consideration of their cultural and social needs as well as individual skill sets goes a long way to a successful rostering process. However, to establish this information you will need to consult with colleagues and ensure that they feel involved in the scheduling of their shifts.
You might want to establish the following from colleagues:
➢ Cultural needs
➢ Social needs or responsibilities
➢ Their skillset
➢ Training and qualifications they have
➢ Desired hours of work
➢ Desired method of communicating roster.
Methods of consultation
You should aim to speak with all employees about the development of a roster. This may take place in a large-scale format if your organisation is bringing in a new roster system, or individually, such as when a new employee joins the business. There are various methods of communication you can utilise.
Staff meetings
A useful opportunity to gain input about rosters is at meetings. The regularity of meetings will vary depending on the type and size of organisation.
If working in a large organisation where there are not meetings between all employees, it might be useful to have smaller meetings between staff and a supervisor or team leader. From there, the team leader or supervisor can report back opinions regarding how rosters should be developed.
Other methods of consultation include:
➢ E-mail
➢ Letters or notes
➢ Suggestion boards
➢ Telephone
➢ Speaking in person.
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Continued input from colleagues
Unavailability
A human resources or operations manager also needs to inform colleagues about procedures for reporting unavailability, such as personal/carer’s leave and compassionate leave, and requesting annual leave.
If for any reason an employee is unable to work a shift, it is vital that they inform the relevant person as soon as possible. A lot of work places will want to be given notice in advance, but if an individual wakes up on the day of their shift and feels unwell, there is usually a certain time by which they have to inform someone of their absence. It is their responsibility to know what the requirements are when it comes to workplace absence, so you should communicate these requirements with all staff members.
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