CLOSING LOOPHOLES BILL AMENDMENTS
The Albanese Labor Government will adopt a range of amendments to its Closing Loopholes Bill – following constructive consultation with business, unions, employer groups and experts.
The Closing Loopholes Bill does what it says on the tin – it’s about ensuring we close loopholes that undercut wages, conditions and safety for Australian workers.
This legislation takes direct aim at stopping workers from being underpaid.
We know that many Australians are doing it tough right now with the cost of living. That’s why we’re doing everything we can to get wages moving, to help deal with that.
The amendments – introduced to the House of Representatives today – are pragmatic, practical changes that ensure we avoid unintended consequences.
They come after constructive consultation with employer groups and business – like Uber, Menulog, DoorDash, the Australian Hotels Association and the Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association (AREEA).
These organisations have come to the table to work with government and that means we now have better legislation.
The proposed changes include:
Clarifying the closing the labour hire loophole measure to ensure service contracting is excluded. If an arrangement is to provide a service rather than the provision of labour, the Fair Work Commission will be prevented from making an order about it.
Clarifying the definition of casual employee, so that an employee who works a regular pattern of work can be a casual employee if there is no firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work, and ensuring penalties will not apply to employers for mistakenly misclassifying employees.
Additional guardrails to clarify how the Fair Work Commission should take into account the unique nature of digital platform work when setting minimum standards for gig workers.
Importantly, the employee-like amendments clarify the Government’s policy intent that the Bill will establish minimum standards for employee-like workers in the gig economy in a way that is fit-for-purpose, without disrupting users and workers who want to access these services, or turning contractors into employees.
Establishing a Family and Injured Workers Advisory Committee, which would provide advice to the Minister and Commonwealth WHS regulators on the support needs of those affected by a serious workplace incident and help inform the development of relevant policies and strategies.
I understand that there are no amendments that will ever be acceptable to some employer groups – like the Minerals Council of Australia and the Business Council of Australia – for the simple reason they have members who currently use the loopholes.
BHP in the case of the Minerals Council and both BHP and Qantas for the Business Council.
They’re being funded to run a multi-million-dollar campaign against this legislation.
The ads will misrepresent what the legislation does and at no point will they defend the loopholes that certain employers want to keep open.
I think a lot of Australians seeing those ads would wonder why they don’t just spend that money on properly paying their workers.
The Coalition have an opportunity this week to help get wages moving, by voting for this legislation.
But given their track record, I’m not holding my breath.
Peter Dutton and the Coalition spent a decade in government keeping wages low. They were upfront about it, admitting it was a deliberate design feature of their economic architecture.
The Liberals and Nationals might be in Opposition now, but nothing’s changed – they’re still committed to keeping wages low.
We take a different approach – getting wages moving is a deliberate design feature of the Albanese Labor Government.
To get wages moving we need to stop the underpayment of Australian workers.
ENDS