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The way in which your HR department manages its HR function will depend on the HR Director at the helm of the HR department as well as the leadership in your organization.

 

The smooth functioning of the HR department in any organization will largely depend on the attributes and integrity of the HR Director as well as the senior leadership who the HR Department reports to – example the CEO of the organization.

 

In Australia HR Departments must conform to various Commonwealth laws which protect Australian workers. These include:

• The Fair Work Act 2009

• The Health and Safety Act 2011

 

Additionally, there are other laws which HR Departments need to conform with – examples include withholding income tax and paying employees superannuation.  Such laws are administered by your HR Department.

Many organizations also have Enterprise Agreements (EA) as well as Code of Conduct (or Practice). In theory these suggest that the organization has a stellar record in supporting workers but in practice this may not be the case. 

 

Not all HR Directors and departments are created equal.  

 

While most organizations have high quality HR teams working to build an exceptional workforce with high performance outputs, there are organizations that are simply toxic and where integrity is compromised. If you work in a toxic workplace it is more than likely that your HR Department has directly contributed to this toxicity. This means that either your HR Director is corrupt and lacks integrity or is compliant with senior management in breaking workplace laws. (It is not possible that an organization is toxic and follows workplace laws!)

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In toxic workplaces where the HR Department is complicit in wrong doing, it is usually difficult (but not impossible) to hold the employer accountable for wrong doing. This is because in toxic workplaces there are usually corrupt work practices in place where HR departments are able to circumvent HR processes which suggest `compliance’ with workplace laws but the `compliance’ is staged.  

 

Some examples of `staged’ but compliant work practices that take away employee work rights include:

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• Change management processes – where an employer deliberately uses the change management process as part of an `adverse action’ plan to target a particular employee or group of employees. This `staging’ is carefully crafted to suggest `compliance’ with workplace laws. (There is a story posted here which provides an example of an HR Director being complicit in breaking workplace laws.)

 

• Coercing employees to accept early retirement or leave before a supposedly genuine `redundancy’ by way of a package settlement with a `deed of release’. This limits an employee’s options to exercise their workplace rights.

 

• Creating a workplace `narrative’ which suggests work performance issues when there has been stellar work performance in the past. Again this limits an employee’s options to exercise their workplace rights.

 

Many of the above `staged’ practices also fall within the category of `constructive dismissal’. There is much information on the internet about constructive dismissal.

 

Currently, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) does not provide any public data on the number of complaints brought to the FWC by name of organization. Unfair dismissal claims (often as part of adverse action claims) in the FWC also lead to only a maximum of 6 month salary as a penalty on employers. This provides `corrupt’ employers,  ample opportunity to use adverse action techniques to take away work rights of employees and face minimal losses (up to 6 month salary) and no public recording of the number of times they have been brought to the FWC by their employees. Please note: not all HR departments and employers are corrupt – some employers have unintentionally broken workplace laws and paid a price in the FWC. The reality however, is that unless an employee is able to expose the wrong doing of the employer in a public court room such as a Federal Court, corrupt employers are able to continue their modus operandi and create toxic workplaces in a country such as Australia which sits at the high table of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

 

Please also click on the following links on this website to better understand the organizational culture in your workplace and its impact on the lives of employees as well as the Australian taxpayer.

 

Read about Workplace Bullying

 

Read about Toxic Workplaces

 

Read about Unfair Dismissals

 

Read about Lack of Transparency and how these contravene workplace laws

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Read about the Liabilities which public sector employers create and are paid for by the Australian Taxpayer

 

Read about integrity in administering HR processes

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