GUTTED BILL STILL BAD FOR WORKERS

The one element of Scott Morrison’s industrial relations changes that has survived a humiliating rout in the Senate will leave Australia’s casual workers worse off.

Labor worked with the Senate crossbench to kill off the vast majority of the government’s bill, which sought to entrench insecure work and make it harder for workers to get a pay rise.

The government was forced to completely gut its own legislation in order to get enough support to pass a single element relating to casuals.

That section extinguishes the rights of casuals. It means employers can now classify workers as a casual even if they work regular, predictable and permanent hours.

That means employers can benefit from the certainty of a permanent worker – but they don’t need to give them the benefits of permanent work like sick leave or annual leave.

This is a backwards step for Australia’s casuals, overturning multiple decisions by the courts.

The Government also ripped out wage theft provisions from its legislation out of pure spite.

The Government knew they had the numbers to easily pass that element of the legislation.

Instead they decided to give wage thieves a free pass as part of a tantrum about losing other elements of the bill.

At the very start of this process Labor set a very simple test: we would support a bill that delivered secure jobs with decent pay. This bill has failed that test every step of the way.

Instead of pursuing changes that reflected the unprecedented cooperation between unions and business the government decided to fall back on its usual anti-worker attacks.

Only Labor has a plan to deliver more secure jobs, better pay and a fairer industrial relations system.

THURSDAY, 18 MARCH 2021