From now the long awaited changes to 2000’s Employment Relations Act will be effective.

Lawyers at Chapman Tripp outlined the key changes to legislation that employers need to be aware of:

• Increased flexibility for rest breaks and meal breaks, requiring employers to provide employees with a "reasonable opportunity" for rest and meal times
• Flexible working arrangements extended to all employees rather than only those with caring responsibilities.
• Employers able to opt out of bargaining for a multi-employer collective agreement.
• Employers able to initiate bargaining at the same time as unions.
• "30 day rule" will be repealed, allowing more scope for employers to negotiate individual terms and conditions at the outset. Employers must still advise employees of the existence of the collective agreement and provide contact details for the union.
• Most strikes and lockouts to require advance written notice.
• Employers able to make partial pay deductions where employees take partial strike action (say work to rule).
• Good faith provisions amended to enable an employer to withhold confidential information where disclosing it will result in the unwarranted disclosure of a non-affected person's affairs.
• Continuity of employment provisions under allows employers to negotiate the apportionment of service related entitlements.
• Employment Relations Authority required to give an oral decision or indication at the end of an investigation meeting and written determinations within three months.

For the first time in New Zealand, the Above Ground Geothermal and Allied Technologies (AGGAT) programme will be presented on an international scale. The date and venue for this conference will be on the 30th April at the Sky City Convention Centre in Auckland.

The Conference focuses on above ground geothermal engineering, with an emphasis on research activities being undertaken in these areas within New Zealand and abroad. Speakers will be focusing on the themes of:

- Technology Concepts - Processes or technology concepts to deliver energy outputs in smarter, faster or more cost effective ways

- Control Systems - Control strategies moving beyond business as usual

- Heat Transfer and Design - Heat exchanger systems and data analysis to optimise power generation systems

- Turbine Design and Performance - Turbine designs and selection for processes and performance in different operating situations

- Materials and Fluids - The right materials and fluids for the right operating conditions

More information is available here: http://www.hera.org.nz/Story?Action=View&Story_id=2180

We are pleased to announce that in October 2014 the AuSAE Board bestowed Fellowship to the following AuSAE members. The AuSAE Fellows Programme is intended to honour persons who have rendered appreciable and outstanding service to the Not for Profit and Charitable sectors. We congratulate each and every one of the Fellows for their outstanding contribution to the not-for-profit sector.

• Charles Hardy, Executive Officer, Community Management Solutions.
  
• John Collyns, Executive Director, Retirement Villages Association NZ
  
• Noela L’Estrange, Chief Executive Officer, Queensland Law Society.
  
• Alison Carmichael, Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Foresters.
  
• Michelle Blicavs, Chief Executive Officer, IAP2 Australia
  
• Michelle Trute, Chief Executive Officer, Diabetes Australia (Qld)
  
• Tony Steven, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Medical Association TAS
  
• Jon Bisset, General Manager, Community Broadcasting Association of Australia
  

For more information about the AuSAE Fellowship program please visit Fellows or to Apply to join please visit Career

Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Jo Goodhew is calling for more sponsors to develop New Zealand’s future leaders by partnering with the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.

“Over the past fifty years, nearly 850 Fellowships have been awarded to New Zealanders with strong research projects that will develop the knowledge of their particular industry,” Mrs Goodhew says.

“Churchill Fellows return to New Zealand with new perspectives and ideas for their profession, overseas networks and leadership abilities.”

“The impact of their work touches on all professions and industries, which has led to an increased interest in profession specific partnered Fellowships.”

Since 2013 the Winston Churchill McNeish Fellowship has allowed writers to immerse themselves in another culture. This year a partnership with the Hawke’s Bay Design Trust will award a fellowship for the advancement of New Zealand product and industrial design.

“Partnered Fellowships are a new direction for the Trust, and these two sponsorships show how well the Trust works in partnership for an industry specific Fellowship,” Mrs Goodhew says.

“I encourage any industries that wish to sponsor a Fellowship to get in touch with the Trust. A sponsorship costs just $5000- $7000 per year, and yet returns significant research results for industry as well as supporting talented New Zealanders.”

The Trust, via a secretariat at the Department of Internal Affairs, handles the paperwork, applications, knowledge co-ordination, and other administration.
For further information about the Trust, and partnered Fellowships, visitwww.communitymatters.govt.nzor call 0800 824 824.

United Nations Association of Australia
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY AWARDS 2015
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

Nominations for the 2015 United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Day Awards are now open nationally. Businesses, local governments, community organisations, individuals, schools and the media are invited to nominate in the following Award categories:

• NSW Office of Environment and Heritage Sustainability Leadership Awards
  
• Swinburne University of Technology Excellence in Sustainable Product Design Award
  
• Hanson’s Green Building Award
  
• Virgin Australia Community Award
  
• *NEW* Clean Energy Award
  
• Biodiversity Award
  
• Business Awards
  
• Environmental School Award
  
• Excellence in Sustainable Water Management Award
  
• Individual Award
  
• Local Government Awards
  
• Media Award for Environmental Reporting
  
• Sustainability Education Award
  

The World Environment Day Awards are held annually in support of UN World Environment Day (5 June). Over the last 15 years, these national awards have recognised those across all Australian sectors who have demonstrated innovation and dedication in their work to protect, manage and restore the environment. The World Environment Day Awards continue to encourage environmental leadership, and promote awareness of environmental issues on a global scale. The 15th Anniversary of the awards program will showcase some of the most important and exciting environmental projects in Australia.

Nominations for the World Environment Day Awards will close at 5.00pm AEST Friday 17 April, 2015.

Winners will be announced at the Awards Presentation Dinner to be held on Friday 5 June 2015.
For entry forms and further details, please visit www.unaavictoria.org.au
Please contact UNAA Victoria with any queries:
Phone: (03) 9670 7878 || Fax: (03) 9670 9993 || Email:awards@unaavictoria.org.au

Please find full Media Release here and Call for Nominations Flyer here.

Sourced from: http://www.probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2015/03/overhaul-definition-volunteering-australia

Volunteering Australia is reviewing the definition of volunteering in Australia and has proposed three alternatives for discussion in a new document.

According to the national volunteering peak’s Issues Paper, National Review of the Definition of Volunteering in Australia, is “the start of a national engagement on the definition of volunteering,” which will see stakeholders consulted Australia-wide.

Volunteering Australia CEO Brett Williamson said the definition of volunteering in Australia was developed almost 20 years ago in 1996 and did not reflect the extent of volunteering today, given it only recognised formal volunteering undertaken for Not for Profit organisations.

“A lot of volunteering that is common today simply didn’t exist 20 years ago,” Williamson said.

“The spirit of volunteering hasn’t changed, but it’s important we refine what volunteering means in Australia to make sure we better recognise, measure and support it.

“The rise of internships, work for the dole programs, and community service orders has created grey areas for organisations. They want to know if these activities overlap with volunteering, particularly around roles, rights and responsibilities.”

Proposed alternative definitions put forward by Volunteering Australia include:

Option 1

Volunteering is an activity undertaken as an individual or in a group, for the benefit of the community, without expectation of financial reward. Volunteering is a choice freely made by each individual and can include formal or informal community participation.

Option 2

Volunteering is doing something willingly, for no financial gain, that aims to benefit the environment or someone (individuals or groups) other than, or in addition to, close relatives or the individual.

Option 3

We define volunteering as any activity that involves spending time, unpaid, doing something that aims to benefit the environment or someone (individuals or groups) other than, or in addition to, close relatives. Volunteering must be a choice freely made by each individual. This can include formal activity undertaken through public, private and voluntary organisations as well as informal community participation

The peak body said the development of the Issues Paper is the first phase of the review process, to be followed by a program of “national engagement,” which will result in a final recommendation on a definition of volunteering to be made to the Volunteering Australia Board.

Volunteering Australia said that one of its proposed definitions may be adopted or modified for use, the current definition could be reaffirmed, or an alternative definition may emerge as a result of the Australia-wide engagement process.

“ABS figures show one in three Australians – 6.1 million people – volunteered in 2010. If we don’t accurately recognise the types of volunteering people do, we risk undervaluing it,” Williamson said.

“In reviewing what volunteering is, we also need to be clearer about what volunteering isn’t.”

The existing definition fails to recognise aspects of virtual volunteering, social entrepreneurship, corporate volunteering, volunteering for government organisations such as museums or informal volunteering in the community.

It states that formal volunteering is an activity that takes place in Not for Profit organisations or projects and:

is of benefit to the community

is undertaken of the volunteer’s own free will and without coercion

is undertaken for no financial payment

occurs in designated volunteer positions only.

VA will hold stakeholder information sessions and that an online survey for all Australians to submit their views will be open from 16 March to 17 April 2015 on its website.

Review of the Definition of Volunteering in Australia can be viewed at www.volunteeringaustralia.org

BY MEG SMITH

Recently released earnings data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) indicated a gender pay gap as high as 45% among managers. Yet basic myths continue to obstruct informed debate about why the gap exists.

Myth 1: Women are less qualified due to interrupted careers.

This myth has been debunked by a wide range of labour market studies which investigate whether women receive the same labour market rewards as men with similar qualifications, experience and personal characteristics. Both in Australia and internationally, such studies consistently show that only a small proportion of the earnings differences between women and men can be explained by differences in education and work experience or other productivity related characteristics.

While it has been assumed that women’s poorer earnings relate to their lower levels of education and qualifications, recent data demonstrates clearly that the earnings gap has persisted despite women’s increased entry into higher education. Today a higher proportion of women (26%) than men (22%) hold a Bachelor Degree or higher qualification, while a higher proportion of women (42%) than men (36%) are currently engaged in undergraduate education.
Grading earnings data indicates also that the gender earnings gap cannot be simply equated to women choosing to have children. Relevant here is the evidence of a persistent gender pay gap among graduates in their 20s, a period that predates career interruptions due to childcare.

Myth 2: The statistics are wrong. Organisations treat all employees equally and pay them fairly.

The statistics are not wrong. The WGEA data is derived from the data organisations have provided to the Agency. The strong story to come out of this evidence is of ongoing gender pay inequity, and its cumulative impact on women’s current and lifelong earnings. Even allowing for the different labour economics paradigms used to investigate the gender pay gap, a significant proportion of the earnings gap remains unaccounted for by what economists term “measurable characteristics”.
The determinants of the gender earnings gap cannot be easily reduced to a single factor.

Contributing factors to the gap include the undervaluation of feminised work and skills, differences in the types of jobs held by men and women and the method of setting pay for those jobs, and structures and workplace practices which restrict the employment prospects of workers with family responsibilities.

Looking at management and leadership positions within organisations, a number of key barriers to the earnings recognition of women in leadership positions and their progression within leadership structures have been identified. These include negative perceptions about competing work-life priorities and women’s ability to lead.

These perceptions not only rest with individuals within an organisation but are embedded in organisational structure and practices. Within organisational settings, unconscious biases specifically related to or informed by expectations about what is appropriate behaviour for men and women, including masculinised models of leadership, do have a systematic and sustained negative impact on women.

Myth 3: Women don’t ask for pay rises and don’t make their case well. Women lack competitive drive and this has an impact on their performance and their pay.

These myths blame women, linking the gender pay gap to women’s capacity to bargain rather than to institutional and workplace practices that fail to organise and value work and performance fairly. These practices include the assessment of the value of a job and performance including recruitment processes and selection criteria, as well as benchmarks used to assess promotion.

On the issue of negotiation, research has highlighted differences in negotiation styles, behaviour and outcomes between women and men. Such differences may contribute to gender differences in earnings, noting also that there is a larger gender pay gap among top income earners. Studies also suggest that these differences are not innate and can be shaped by the organisational environment, which includes cultural stereotypes about gender and negotiation styles.

Myth 4: Women have broader personal goals and benchmarks for success so they don’t care as much about their income.

This myth conflates a number of key factors. The disproportionately high burden of caring work that falls to women does shape the labour market choices made by women, including women in senior positions. Yet such choices are clearly constrained ones and are impacted by a range of factors including the impact of effectively high marginal tax rates (on the income of couple households), the availability of child care and gender norms about what constitutes good parenting.
Within workplaces, opportunities for women, particularly those who have caring responsibilities can be enhanced or restricted by the availability and quality of flexible work practices that support rather than impede career progression. These factors are also linked with gendered constructions of what constitutes “leadership”. Hannah Piterman has noted that it is the fragility in the link between women and authority and between men and family responsibilities that continues to marginalise women’s position in the workforce.

The inequities in the distribution of unpaid domestic work do not mean that women in leadership lack interest in their career or the conditions that attach to it. Rather than a lack of interest, much of what shapes women’s aspirations to leadership lies in factors such as insufficient career development, promotion pathways and mentoring provision and the cost of childcare.
Progress to gender pay equity is not assisted by myth-making. What is required is support for effective and sustained institutional and cultural reform capable of addressing the factors that shape the earnings gap.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

AuSAE are delighted to announce Alex Malley, Chief Executive of CPA Australia, host of the Nine Network's The Bottom Line and author of the bestselling book The Naked CEO, will deliver the opening keynote address at the 2015 AuSAE Conference and Exhibition (ACE) on 18 June in Brisbane.

From suspended schoolboy to disruptive CEO, Alex Malley has led a life rich in career accomplishment and mistakes. Through it all he has learned a lot about what it takes to successfully build not only a big career, but also a big life - the secrets of which he shares in his book and will share with you at ACE 2015.  

        

To celebrate Alex Malley's involvement with a 2015 ACE Keynote, AuSAE will be giving the next 100 ACE registrants a complimentary copy of "The Naked CEO" valued at $24.95.

AuSAE are simply thrilled Alex is able to share with our community his extensive experience and knowledge as to what it means to be a true leader in the not-for-profit sector. We confirm new speakers and exhibitors every day so please visit the official ACE Website for up-to-date event information. Stay tuned for the full ACE program release soon.

Special thanks to our valued ACE Location Partner, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Enterprise Care is excited to announce the release of its suite of Governance Intelligence® Health Checks. Initially it has the following Health Checks:

• Board Performance
  
• Board Intelligence®
  
• WHS Governance
  
• OHS Workplace
  

Embracing Health Checks is a positive step in gaining credible and practical visibility and understanding of what is happening organisationally. Enterprise Care’s Health Checks offer your Board, executive/senior team, and staff the opportunity to readily identify the actions needed to focus on improving organisational performance.

Each Enterprise Care Health Check provides your organisation with a targeted holistic, aligned, integrated and systematic evaluation in your selected area of choice.

The Health Check report strongly supports the Board, CEO and staff having a clear and common understanding of the next actions, knowing their contribution matters, and knowing they have a valuable impact for good.

The Governance Intelligence® Health Checks contribute to a governance approach with an organisational dimension enabling you to:

• holistically engage and make sound organisational decisions;
  
• meaningfully and professionally contribute to a better performing Board and organisation;
  
• gain practical insights into all key performance areas;
  
• schedule the tracking of key functions, projects or activities annually;
  
• identify measured key interventions against each of the agreed strategies;
  
• test and even audit current practices;
  
• determine the level of responsiveness to changes in management and operational issues;
  
• receive potential early warnings in any area of the organisation;
  
• review reports on how stakeholders view your organisation; and
  
• confirm the confidence levels you hold in various aspects of the organisation’s operations.
  

The Governance Intelligence® Health Checks are powered by governABILITY, the leaders' choice in governance for advancing your organisation's performance.

To discuss any aspect of Enterprise Care’s Governance Intelligence® Health Checks please contact Damien Smith on +61 3 8862 6315 or smithdj@enterprisecare.com.au

About the Conference

ASAE's Great Ideas in Association Management Conference, Asia-Pacific, is a unique opportunity for senior staff of industry and professional societies in the Asia-Pacific region to expand their knowledge in association management. The event will take place 22-24 March 2015 at the Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel in Hong Kong. A community of attendees and presenters from Asia-Pacific, as well as the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East, will gather to learn and share knowledge around key association management topics and to improve the effectiveness of professional societies and association executives.

AuSAE Delegation

On March 22-24 2015, a group of AuSAE not-for-profit professional members will be travelling to Hong Kong for the Great Ideas in Association Management Asia-Pacific Conference organised by our sister society, ASAE.

We would love you to join our delegation and take the opportunity to gain valuable ideas to help you manage your association more effectively, build fellowship and learn from your colleagues, and share one journey to strengthen the association profession.

To join AuSAE’s delegation*:

1. Click here to open the Great Ideas 2015 registration page.
   
2. Follow the registration process and when prompted, please select ‘AuSAE’ as your delegation from the dropdown box.
   
3. Finally enter the code GIA2015IND to receive your delegation discount (AuSAE has secured a special registration price of $495 USD for our delegation).