SACE Stage 2 Workplace Practices cheat sheet

Award and enterprise agreement terms override a contract only where the contract is less favourable; the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) sets the minimum floor of entitlements that cannot be undercut.

The 11 National Employment Standards (NES) include maximum weekly hours (38 ordinary hours), requests for flexible working arrangements, parental leave (12 months unpaid, extendable to 24), annual leave (4 weeks), personal/carer's leave (10 days), and notice of termination.

The national minimum wage is reviewed annually by the Fair Work Commission; modern awards add loadings, penalties and allowances on top of the base rate rather than replacing it.

Unfair dismissal requires: 6 months' minimum employment (12 months for a small business with fewer than 15 employees), dismissal at the employer's initiative, and a remedy sought within 21 days of the dismissal taking effect.

Adverse action under the general protections provisions includes dismissing, injuring, altering position, or refusing to hire a person because of a protected attribute or workplace right.

Work Health and Safety legislation imposes a primary duty of care on the PCBU (person conducting a business or undertaking) to ensure health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable; workers also hold a duty to take reasonable care.

Bullying is defined as repeated unreasonable behaviour directed at a worker that creates a risk to health and safety; a single incident is not bullying but may be discrimination or harassment.

Contract types: permanent full-time, permanent part-time, fixed-term, casual (no guaranteed hours, casual loading in lieu of leave), and independent contractor (no leave entitlements, no PAYG withholding by the hirer).

Organisational structures: functional (grouped by speciality), divisional (grouped by product, customer or geography), matrix (dual reporting lines across function and project), and flat or network structures with few management layers.

Span of control is the number of subordinates reporting to one manager; a narrow span produces taller hierarchies, a wide span produces flatter ones with greater worker autonomy.

Workplace culture is described through the competing values framework: clan (collaborative), adhocracy (creative), market (competitive) and hierarchy (controlled).

Team development follows forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning; conflict typically peaks at storming and is resolved by establishing norms and clear roles.

Conflict-handling modes (Thomas–Kilmann): competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating; collaborating is the only mode that fully satisfies both parties' concerns.

Communication channels include downward, upward, horizontal and diagonal; the grapevine is an informal channel that transmits information faster than formal channels but with lower accuracy.

Leadership styles: autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire, transactional (rewards and sanctions) and transformational (vision and individual consideration).

Human resource management functions include recruitment and selection, induction, training and development, performance appraisal, remuneration and separation.

Industry sectors: primary (extraction and agriculture), secondary (manufacturing and processing), tertiary (services), quaternary (knowledge and information) and quinary (high-level decision making).

Small business in Australia is generally defined by the Fair Work Act as fewer than 15 employees, and by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as fewer than 20 employees; the two definitions serve different purposes.

A business plan typically contains a description of the business, market analysis, marketing plan, operational plan, management and ownership structure, and financial projections.

SWOT analysis classifies internal strengths and weaknesses against external opportunities and threats; PESTLE classifies political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors.

Career development models describe stages such as growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance and decline; career decision making is iterative rather than a single event.

A résumé for a school leaver should foreground transferable skills (communication, teamwork, digital literacy, initiative) supported by evidence rather than listing duties.

Selection processes typically follow application, shortlisting against selection criteria, interview, referee checks and offer; behavioural or STAR-based questions ask for situation, task, action and result.

Enterprise skills (sometimes called employability skills) include communication, teamwork, problem solving, initiative and enterprise, planning and organising, self-management, learning, and technology.

The three-step dispute resolution process for most workplace disputes is: internal discussion and written application, then conciliation by the Fair Work Commission, then arbitration or a tribunal hearing.

Enterprise bargaining produces an enterprise agreement that must pass the better off overall test (BOOT) against the relevant modern award and be approved by a majority of employees voting.

Protected industrial action can only occur during bargaining for a proposed enterprise agreement, after the nominal expiry date of any existing agreement, and after a protected action ballot authorises it.

Occupational overuse syndrome and musculoskeletal disorders are addressed through hazard identification, risk assessment, risk control using the hierarchy of controls, and review.

The hierarchy of controls ranks measures from most to least effective: elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls, then personal protective equipment.

Change management models include Lewin's unfreeze–change–refreeze and Kotter's eight steps; resistance to change is reduced by communication, participation and visible leadership support.

Negotiation positions: distributive (fixed pie, win–lose) versus integrative (expanding the pie, win–win); BATNA is the best alternative to a negotiated agreement and sets the walk-away point.

Equal opportunity and anti-discrimination law prohibits direct discrimination (treating someone less favourably on a protected ground) and indirect discrimination (a neutral requirement that disadvantages a protected group and is not reasonable).