News & Media

Real Estate Employers’ Federation SA/NT - Article 1

10 Nov 14

The Real Estate Employers’ Federation SA/NT (REEF) is an industrial relations organisation registered with the Fair Work Commission. We are a membership organisation for real estate employers and our charter is to look after the industrial relations and human resources management interests of our members. We lease an office in the REISA building on Greenhill road and there is a large degree of cooperation between REEF and REISA.

The association for assisting employees in real estate with industrial relations is the Real Estate Salespersons Association (RESA) and again there is large degree of cooperation between REEF, RESA and REISA.

REEF can be contacted by calling Don Tepper on 8366 4310 and RESA can be contacted by calling Ralph Clarke on 0419 806 049.

Part of REEF’s charter is education.

Salespersons and Property Managers are covered by the Real Estate Industry Award and admin staff by the Clerks Private Sector Award. An award is a legal instrument made by the Fair Work Commission and contains an employee’s minimum wages and entitlements.

In addition there are 10 National Employment Standards (NES) in relation to matters such as annual leave, sick leave, termination notice, redundancy pay, parental leave, flexible working arrangements etc. The NES applies to all employees including commission-only salespersons.

Employers that employ salespersons, property managers and admin staff must make available in the office for employees a copy of the Real Estate Industry Award and the Clerks Private Sector Award and the National Employment Standards. Members are provided with these instruments but anyone can access them on either the Fair Work Commission’s (the awards) or the Fair Work Ombudsman’s (the NES) websites.

An employer must pay no less than the minimum wages in an award but may pay more. For a commission-only salesperson the employer must pay no less than 35% of the employer’s net commission but may pay more.

This has just been a brief introduction to REEF, the awards and the NES. In coming articles more detail will be given about the employer’s obligations in terms of industrial relations, human resources management and work health and safety in a real estate office.

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