FEATURE
A SNAPSHOT OF POTENTIAL INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS REFORMS FROM THE NEWLY ELECTED STATE AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS MAIDA MUJKIC, SOLICITOR, AND JOHN LOVE, PARTNER, MELLOR OLSSON
T
he newly elected Labor State and Federal Governments have promised to introduce significant employment law reforms that are likely to impact employers across all industries. If they enact these election promises, it will bring major changes to workplaces across Australia. Labor’s changes will mainly focus on secure work, with the proposed changes giving new protections to ‘gig workers’, casual workers and women in the workplace. In this article we provide a summary of key changes you can expect to be discussed during Labor's upcoming job summit held in September.
FEDERAL Paid domestic violence leave In 2018, the Fair Work Commission varied over 100 modern awards to include five days’ unpaid leave to deal with family and domestic violence Earlier this year, the FWC began its four yearly review of the family and domestic violence leave entitlements in modern awards and arrived at a provisional view that the entitlement to family and domestic violence leave should be increased to ten paid days. The new Labor Government has committed to legislating ten days paid family and domestic violence leave with the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Tony Burke stating: the Government intends to introduce 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave into the National Employment Standards as soon as possible.
16 THE BULLETIN August 2022
Better deal for Gig workers Labor has promised to introduce greater regulation to the ‘gig economy’. Most gig-workers are classified as independent contractors in Australia and are not entitled to award benefits (i.e. minimum wage), superannuation, and access to unfair dismissal protections. Gig workers, such as ride share and food delivery drivers, will be provided with some minimum standards under the Labor Government. The Fair Work Commission will be given powers to set minimum standards for gig and other ‘employee-like’ workers. Currently there is little information about how Labor will implement this policy, however it is likely that the Commission would be given the power to make orders regarding entitlements such as minimum pay rates, superannuation and dismissal rights of contractors. These changes will ensure that more workers can access workplace entitlements that they otherwise cannot access. The changes will provide better protection from exploitation and dangerous working conditions for people in new forms of work. While some ‘gig-economy’ platforms have taken steps to improve conditions, a national approach to offer fair and decent pay and conditions will be welcomed by the thousands of Australians in the industry. Same job same pay Labor is expected to introduce ‘same-
job, same-pay’ legislation that would ensure all workers receive the same pay. The proposed legislation would make it unlawful to pay labour hire employees less than those who are employed directly with the employer to do the same job. In late 2021, Labor introduced the Fair Work Amendment (Same Job, Same Pay) Bill 2021 (2021 Bill) to address the long standing issues within the labour hire industry. The Bill had no real prospects of passing while the Coalition had a majority in the Parliament, however, it is now likely that an amended version will soon become law. Nevertheless, the 2021 Bill provides an indication of what new ‘same-job, same-pay’ legislation would look like. The 2021 Bill imposed obligations on the labour hire business and host employers that use labour hire. The obligations included: • Providing ‘pay and conditions which are no less favourable than those that would be required to be paid’; and • Not engaging any labour hire business unless that business agrees, as part of the terms of engagement, to comply with the ‘same-job, same-pay’ obligations. If introduced, the obligations were to form part of the NES, becoming binding on nearly all employers in Australia. The Government has indicated it is willing to delay these changes if more consultation is needed but there is a real possibility that ‘same-job, same-pay’ legislation will come into effect sooner rather than later.
