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From 1 January 2010, private sector NSW employers and employees previously covered by the NSW state award system (mainly sole traders and partnerships) move into the national workplace relations system administered by the federal government.

Transitional arrangements are now in place for businesses previously operating under the state industrial relations system. If you are running a business in NSW, there are two major areas of change that you need to know about.

All existing awards (both federal and state) have been streamlined into around 120 modern awards.

If you were covered by a federal award on 31 December 2009, you must now use the appropriate modern award.

If you were covered by a NSW state award on 31 December 2009, that award has been preserved as a state reference award for a period of 12 months to 31 December 2010 and you can continue to refer to this award and use the Awards Online area of the NSW IR website. Important note � from 1 January 2011, your business will be required to use the appropriate modern award.

If you are starting a new business as a sole trader or partnership, you will be covered by the appropriate modern award.

There are 10 new National Employment Standards (NES) which came into effect on 1 January 2010.

All NSW businesses, whether previously covered by a federal award or a NSW state award, must apply these new standards for all their employees.

Maximum weekly hours of work � 38 hours per week, plus reasonable additional hours.
Requests for flexible working arrangements � allows parents or carers of a child under school age or of a child under 18 with a disability, to request a change in working arrangements to assist with the child�s care.
Parental leave and related entitlements � up to 12 months unpaid leave for every employee, plus a right to request an additional 12 months unpaid leave, plus other forms of maternity, paternity and adoption related leave.
Annual leave � 4 weeks paid leave per year, plus an additional week for certain shift workers.
Personal/carer�s leave and compassionate leave � 10 days paid personal/carer�s leave, two days unpaid carer�s leave as required, and two days compassionate leave (unpaid for casuals) as required.
Community service leave � unpaid leave for voluntary emergency activities and leave for jury service, with an entitlement to be paid for up to 10 days for jury service.
Long service leave � a transitional entitlement for certain employees who had certain LSL entitlements before 1/1/10 pending the development of a uniform national long service leave standard.
Public holidays � a paid day off on a public holiday, except where reasonably requested to work.
Notice of termination and redundancy pay � up to 4 weeks notice of termination (5 weeks if the employee is over 45 and has at least 2 years of continuous service) and up to 16 weeks redundancy pay, both based on length of service.
Provision of a Fair Work Information Statement � employers must provide this statement to all new employees.

More information about the NES may be obtained from the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94.

NSW Industrial Relations is here to help you understand what the move to the national scheme will mean for you as an employer or employee presently in the NSW IR system.

NSW Industrial Relations is publishing regular information on topics relating to the national scheme that will help employers who have been working within the NSW industrial relations system to come to grips with the changes to their workplace arrangements. They will find out what they need to do to get ready for their move to the national system.

We will also update the content on this website as more information comes to hand.

You can subscribe to our What�s New service to be automatically advised of our regular updates. Or you can follow us on Twitter at NSW_IR.