Default fund legislation passes house
The Federal Government's legislative changes to the selection of default funds under modern awards have passed the House of Representatives.
The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Financial Services, Bill Shorten, announced the passage of the amendments to the Fair Work Act late yesterday.
The amendments, if they pass the Senate, will mean default funds will be selected by a specialist panel within Fair Work Australia, which will then forward their selection to a full bench of Fair Work Australia.
While the Federal Opposition has been highly critical of the Government's changes and has suggested that they entrench the influence of the trade unions, the Industry Super Network (ISN) welcomed Shorten's amendments.
ISN chief executive David Whiteley said the changes would "help ensure an open and transparent default fund system where default funds are selected on merit".
He claimed that throughout the process, employers had strongly supported a system that did not place the burden and cost of default fund selection on themselves.
"The assessment of funds by the Fair Work Commission according to a set of established criteria will ensure that all funds are considered on the same basis and will not place undue burden on employers to make their own judgements on such an important issue," Whiteley said.
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