Western Australia Report - October 2009

A busy end to 2009
CCF WA has a busy end to 2009 with several important events. The Rocla CCF Golf Day at the Vines Resort sold out weeks before the event and promises to be one of the highlights of the year.
South West members will be addressing the contentious issue of access to sand and other raw materials in the South West at a meeting at Casellas Restaurant in Bunbury on Tuesday 13 October. Sands and raw material access has long been an issue for South West members and we are delighted that Robyn Barrow executive director strategic policy and research group at the Department of Planning will be our special guest.
On November 11, CCF WA has an important breakfast event targeted at the senior professionals within our members’ companies. The breakfast called Developing Your Most Important Asset: Your People will be held at Kings Park Function Centre. 
We will be featuring three speakers at the breakfast helping you to find, manage and develop key people in your business.
•    Workpac will provide the latest tips on how to find and attract the right talent to your business. With another skills shortage already being forecast, it is important information for all companies to consider. The strategy of simply putting an advertisement on a job site and hoping for the best will just not cut it.
•    David Castledine from Work Options will provide information on the Injury & OH&S Assist Program that has been set up to save your business money in managing workers compensation and OH&S. Work Options is CCF WA’s recommended supplier of OH&S, injury management consulting and workers compensation injury management services.
•    Julie Edwards from Polevault is well known to CCF members Australia wide. Julie will be introducing her High Potentials Leadership Program – a program designed to take natural leaders in your organisation and develop them to their full potential.
The Westrac CCF WA Christmas party – for many the social highlight of the year - is on again at the Burswood Entertainment Complex on Friday 11 December.
We are also planning to secure a date before the end of the year to provide further information to members about changes that will be introduced from 1 January 2010 with the introduction of modern awards. Heelan and Co, our long standing Industrial Relations advisors, will outline some of the significant changes expected with Fair Work Australia’s (FWA) enforcement regime.
It appears that FWA is being given appropriate resources for the first time which will mean the appointment of a relatively large number of inspectors and increased resources for the prosecution function.
The FWA act also has provision for individuals to be penalised for non-compliance (in addition to the traditional imposition of fines on companies) and CCF WA wants to ensure all members are advised about their responsibilities.
Training enquiries up
As the economic outlook brightens, CCF WA has noticed a pick-up in the number of training enquiries, particularly relating to Certificate III and Certificate IV traineeships. We advise members to plan well ahead for any training requirements, particularly where traineeships are concerned. If possible, CCF WA requests a lead time of up to 2 months to ensure that all of the necessary legislative and administrative requirements can be met and the trainee(s) properly enrolled.
Short courses are also gaining in popularity and again we suggest you register as early as possible to ensure we can complete the training to your required timeframe.
Member survey
CCF WA is planning to gain member and associate member feedback through a telephone survey. We will have more details in e-news in the coming weeks. We look forward to receiving your feedback and to making sure CCF WA is meeting all of your needs.