HABA + AI GROUP – Fighting for Salon Owners // 2019 recap

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Posted December 2, 2019

The partnership between HABA and Ai Group is one of the foundations of your membership with HABA. Ai Group provide members with accurate, up-to-date legal advice concerning workplace relations and staffing issues, ensuring that your salons are protected and that salon owners are well informed.

 

Ai Group and HABA partner together to represent salon owners in tribunals and courts, working on changing or influencing laws and making sure that in conversation with lawmakers, salon owners are represented and are not overshadowed by calls from employees and unions. HABA are the only representative body for hair and beauty salon owners that is registered under Australia’s workplace relation laws, and we are the only group lobbying with government and lawmakers on behalf of salon owners.

 

In 2019, together with Ai Group, HABA have worked on a number of important cases and issues that could significantly impact the way that salon owners do business. Here’s a recap of our efforts in 2019.

 

• HABA and Ai Group Workplace Lawyers are representing salon owners in the Penalty Rates case, seeking a moderate reduction of current Sunday and public holiday penalty rates to bring them in line with those rates paid by employers operating in similar industries, and despite strong opposition from the SDA and AWU. The Case was heard by the Fair Work Commission earlier this year and the Commission has reserved its decision.
• HABA and Ai Group have advocated for salon owners before the Fair Work Commission in the 4 yearly review of Modern Awards, allowing us to rebuff a number of key changes presented by the unions that would have adversely impacted salon owners had we not been there. We were able to stop changes to overtime rates, new restrictions on rostering arrangements, paid blood donor leave and new entitlements for employees working on public holidays, all of which would have had a significant impact on salon owners across the country. Importantly, Ai Group secured significant new changes on behalf of HABA to the rostering provisions of the Hair and Beauty Industry Award 2010, introducing essential flexibilities for employers.
• Ai Group has advocated for changes to the workplace relations system, including measures to address the complexity of awards, the complexity of enterprise agreement requirements, the definition casual employment and personal/carer’s leave entitlements. As a result, salon owners’ interests are represented at the highest levels of government and you are protected from laws that adversely affect your business.

 

The partnership between Ai Group and HABA is one of the fundamental differences between our association and others in the hair and beauty industry. We are able to provide better support to members and ensure that salon owners are represented and protected when new laws and policies are created.

In addition, individual salons have access to expert advice and representation in workplace relations matters from Ai Group and Ai Group Workplace Lawyers (which is Ai Group’s wholly-owned law firm). Salon owners can trust that the advice they receive from Ai Group via their HABA membership is always accurate, practical, pragmatic and timely.

 

We look forward to achieving great things out of our efforts on behalf of salon owners in 2019 and look forward to the new challenges 2020 will bring.