Queensland Consolidated Acts

TRADING (ALLOWABLE HOURS) ACT 1990 - SECT 36B

36B Protection for employees—extended hours under Trading (Allowable Hours) Amendment Act 2017

(1) An employer must not require an employee to work during extended hours unless the employee has freely elected to work during extended hours.

Penalty—

Maximum penalty—

(a) for a first offence—16 penalty units; or

(b) for a second or later offence—20 penalty units.

(2) However, subsection (1) does not apply in relation to an employee if an industrial instrument provides arrangements under which the employee may refuse or agree to work during extended hours.

(3) For subsection (1) , an employee has not freely elected to work during extended hours—

(a) if the employee elects to work during extended hours because the employee has been coerced, harassed, threatened or intimidated by or for the employer; or

(b) only because the employee is rostered, or required under an industrial instrument, to work during those hours.

(4) In this section—

"elect" means agree in writing for a stated or indefinite period.

"employer" means an employer of an employee in a non-exempt shop.

"extended hours" means the permitted trading hours under this Act for a non-exempt shop on any day (other than a closed day), but only to the extent the hours are greater than the shop’s permitted trading hours immediately before the commencement.

"industrial instrument" means any of the following within the meaning of the Industrial Relations Act 2016 —

(a) a modern award, bargaining award or certified agreement;

(b) a federal industrial instrument.