The independent regulator for unions and employer associations has focused on supporting a culture of voluntary compliance in its Education Strategy for 2018-19.
The Registered Organisations Commission released its blueprint for the upcoming financial year, providing registered organisations with additional tools and materials to aid in their compliance with regulatory reporting obligations.
It aims to assist registered organisations, their branches, reporting units and officers to plan ahead on using the tools they might need to become more familiar with and better equipped to meet their financial reporting and accountability requirements under the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009.
Registered organisations – unions and employer groups – achieved a 100 per cent compliance rate for lodging annual returns in March this year, while compliance rates relating to the quality and content of financial reports lodged with the ROC is also up – from around 50 per cent some two years ago to around 75 per cent now, and trending upwards.
“The Strategy is integral to our on-going commitment to explore and develop new ways to educate, assist and advise registered organisations and their office holders in navigating and complying with their statutory obligations,” said Registered Organisations Commissioner Mr Mark Bielecki.
“The Strategy sets out the full suite of additional educational sessions and tools that will be made available to registered organisations over the next 12 months and importantly when those materials will become available.
“This will enable organisations to plan ahead as to how they may want to upskill and be better equipped to meet their financial reporting and accountability requirements, which I am happy to say, have continued to improve since the ROC commenced in May 2017.”
The ROC commenced in May 2017 has been setup to ensure officials from registered organisations are subject to similar governance and financial reporting standards as company directors.
The new Strategy has been circulated to more than 800 ROC information service subscribers, and is available on the new Education Strategy is available here.
The ROC welcomes feedback about the Strategy, or about improvement to any of its resources, or suggest modules for next year. If any AREEA members wish to provide feedback, contact [email protected]
