◆ NEWS
Morrison's IR Omnibus Bill will worsen insecure employment The Morrison Government’s proposed changes to Australia’s industrial relations system via the ‘Omnibus’ Bill introduced to Parliament in December 2020 is likely to make insecure employment worse, not better. The Bill includes the following changes:
ALP’s initiatives
• To enable employers to simply deem a worker as a casual, regardless of the nature of the work performed.
ALP Leader Anthony Albanese sharpened the debate when he announced on 10 February that a future ALP government will address some of the worst aspects of insecure work. The commitments include:
• While the Bill proposes a nominally improved conversion to ongoing employment clause, it is not automatic and any employer can refuse an application on, as yet to be defined, 'reasonable grounds', with no right of appeal or access to the Fair Work Commission (FWC).
Free Sean Turnell! Dr Sean Turnell, an active member of NTEU and a well-respected economist at Macquarie University, has been detained by the Myanmar military. No reason has been given for his arbitrary detention. NTEU joins with Sean’s wife, Ha Vu, his family, friends and colleagues in calling for Sean’s immediate release and return to his family in Australia On 4 March, the NTEU National Executive noted with the strongest possible concern the detention of Professor Turnell. Sean was advising the Myanmar Government on economic policy, using his expertise to help bring investment and job opportunities to the country, to help Myanmar integrate with other economies in the region and the world, and to help lift people out of poverty. ◆
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fate. It’s unclear at this point how many support the Bill in its present form, or whether the Government will further amend the Bill to get their support. The ACTU and unions continue to lobby the Senators to oppose the Bill.
• If a casual employee successfully challenges their employment status and a court rules that they are owed entitlements because of the regular, ongoing nature of the work, the casual loading already paid to the employee can be deducted from the employer’s liability. • The Bill would introduce 'part-time flexibility' into the awards covering the retail, food and accommodation industries, allowing part-time employees to work extra shifts at ordinary rates, without any overtime pay. ACTU Secretary Sally McManus has argued that this is simply casual employment, and will inevitably reduce take-home pay. The original Bill included a provision to allow employers to offer pay deals that do not meet the 'Better Off Overall Test' (BOOT) for two years, if the FWC considered it appropriate, especially in a COVID context. The BOOT test stipulates that any agreement must be better than the existing award conditions. The end result would be significant numbers of workers suffering pay cuts. The Government has now dropped this provision after strong opposition from unions, the ALP and Greens, and even the One Nation senators.
Passage in Senate uncertain At the time of writing, there is no clear timetable for the Bill’s consideration by the Senate, where ultimately the five crossbench Senators will decide its
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• To legislate for portable annual and sick leave entitlements for insecurely employed staff. • To place a cap on fixed-term contracts. • To ensure labour hire workers be paid the same as ongoing co-workers. • To create a fair test based on the nature of the work to determine whether a worker can be classified as a casual. These initiatives could potentially have a significant impact on the prevalence of insecure employment in higher education, where 65% of the workforce is now employed either casually or on a fixedterm contract.
Online seminar There will be an opportunity to engage directly with some key politicians around these issues, with an online seminar, 'Where’s the vaccine for insecure work?', being organised for 19 March (see p.5). Tony Sheldon, ALP Senator for NSW and Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Job Security, and Dr Mehreen Faruqi, Greens Senator for NSW and the Greens’ Education spokesperson, will be the guest speakers, along with NTEU National President, Dr Alison Barnes.
Sign the petition The ACTU is running a petition to the Morrison Government, 'You can’t heal the economy by hurting workers', calling on the Government to drop the Bill. So far it has over 80,000 signatures. The petition can be found at nteu.info/ omnibuspetition. ◆ Michael Evans, National Organiser (Media & Engagement)
