The Fair Work Commission has changed the way it publishes Modern Awards on its website as part of a suite of digital transformation projects to improve its technology and cyber-security.
Announcing the changes, the Commission said Awards would now be published through the Document Search function on its website.
It said people would still be able to browse Modern Awards in alphabetical order; navigate within each Award using a table of contents; download a Word version of the Award; copy and paste from the Award; and see the history of changes to each Award.
“In the future, we’ll begin to publish data from our Modern Awards Pay Database using graphs and dashboards, providing a visual representation of the information for the first time,” the Commission said.
It said its digital transformation projects aimed to improve access to justice while reducing regulatory burden and complexity.
“The genesis of these initiatives is independent client experience feedback and research that we have commissioned over recent years which identified opportunities to enhance our services through user-centred design,” the Commission said.
“These initiatives are part of our ongoing commitment to transform the services we deliver to the Australian community,” it said.
“On 1 January 2023, we launched a new suite of correspondence for most major case types to provide parties with more detailed information about the case management process and timeframes for each step.”
The Commission said a new online learning module is to be released early this year with a focus on preparing for unfair dismissal conciliations.
“Research (including Unfair dismissal: User-experience research) indicates that users are often anxious, experience significant cognitive load, and find it challenging to prepare effectively for conciliations,” it said.
“The purpose of the module is to address such issues by providing practical information and targeted exercises to support preparation, with a focus on the needs of self-represented parties and small business.”
The Commission’s other digital transformation initiatives include new online smart forms, an online user portal for managing cases, and informative animations on the timeframe for lodging unfair dismissal cases.
