TRANSCRIPT: PRESS CONFERENCE - SYDNEY - FRIDAY, JULY 24

E&OE TRANSCRIPT 
PRESS CONFERENCE
SYDNEY
FRIDAY, 24 JULY 2020

SUBJECTS: Government attack on job security; paid pandemic leave.

TONY BURKE: Yesterday, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg launched an attack on Australian workers and launched an attack on job security. Some months ago, the government came to Labor and to business and to unions and said that because of the investment that the government was providing with respect to JobKeeper that they needed some flexibility to be able to make JobKeeper work. That was the basis on which the parliament and the stakeholders agreed to there being changes to the Fair Work Act. And the government said repeatedly it was on the basis of the investment that the government was making to protect jobs with JobKeeper - and we welcomed their change of heart, that after resisting wage subsidies they’d come on board with wage subsidies.

What happened yesterday when Josh Frydenberg announced the government's new policy is a complete shift from that position. Because now they're saying that the same workers and businesses that the government says no longer need support, the same businesses and workers that the government will now refuse to support, need to have the loss of job security applied to them as well. You know if there’s one lesson out of this pandemic for the Australian workforce it's that we need more job security, not less. The people who had less job security were the first to find themselves on Centrelink queues. And what the government is now proposing is a direct attack on that job security under the cover of a pandemic, in the middle of a pandemic, where Josh Frydenberg and the government say it no longer matters whether a business is suffering. And it no longer matters how long this can go on, the workers will lose their right, they even lose their right to negotiate.

Now part of the context for this is there's always been flexibility within the Fair Work Act. The big shift that these workplace changes made, that Labor and the parliament agreed to, was to say in these very particular circumstances the employee will lose that right to negotiate – the employer can simply direct. Normally the flexibility is there as a right to negotiate. And the only basis on which that was temporarily set aside was because of JobKeeper. But think about the exact example that Josh Frydenberg has now opened up. There will be some companies that during the pandemic having taken a hit then do well. There'll be some businesses for example where their competitor hits the fence. And as a result they will find themselves with a higher turnover than they had 12 months ago. Those businesses – even businesses that are doing better during the pandemic than they would normally do – Josh Frydenberg is saying and the Australian government is saying, the workers there lose their right to job security. That a business that has improved will be able to say to its full-time workers you now have to be part-time and there will be nothing they can do about. In the middle of a pandemic, a business that is doing better will be allowed to tell its workers that they have to have their hours cut. And there'll be no right to negotiate, there'll be nothing they have to go on, and it’ll be the exact same businesses that the government says don't need any government support anymore.

This is a direct attack on job security. Now Josh Frydenberg is standing up later today. He should back down on this. The Government should abandon the concept that businesses that are no longer suffering, and businesses that are no longer being supported, will be able to attack the job security of their workforce. It's an extraordinary call that the government made yesterday. The Prime Minister had made different hints that they were planning something in this direction, and we've been working on the basis they couldn't possibly mean that. And yesterday the announcement came. And what the government is calling for is extraordinary. It is an attack on job security in Australia and in the form in which Josh Frydenberg announced it cannot be supported.

National Cabinet's also leading today. This should be an opportunity for paid pandemic believed to be on the table and for this issue to be fixed. More than 40 per cent of Australian workers now don't have sick leave available to them, either because they've used it up, or because they’ve never had it because they’re gig economy workers or casuals. We can't have a situation which we have right now where coronavirus is being spread at the workplace and the workers there had choose between isolating and staying away from work or paying the bills. That should not be the choice that Australian workers face but until the issue of paid pandemic leave is resolved, Australian workers are simply faced with either paying the bills or protecting public health. And no one should be put in that situation. Happy to take your questions.

JOURNALIST: What do you say to the government to try to get the balance right? What can they do?

BURKE: The Government's extending JobKeeper and we welcome that. The extension of JobKeeper is the right decision to make. And it's for them to come up with proposals and for us to make clear whether we can support them or not. But certainly there is no justification at all for businesses that are in fact doing well during the pandemic to be able to attack the job security of their workforce.
 
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)

BURKE: The comments that the Prime Minister had been making he'd been making publicly, and they’re the comments that I was referring to. It’s for the government to work with stakeholders and come up with a proposal, and then we'll look at that proposal as to whether or not it's fair. What Josh Frydenberg announced yesterday is not fair, it is an attack on job security. It is the exact opposite of what should be happening at a time like the moment. I've got a question on the phone.

JOURNALIST: The Treasurer said yesterday that that those changes he was talking about in terms of flexible arrangements might apply to someone who was previously working in sales in the showroom but now will help out in the warehouse. Isn’t that a reasonable thing?

BURKE: Well he said yesterday was all of the changes that had been made to the Fair Work Act should be able to apply to companies that no longer receive JobKeeper. So, let's make clear: the issue of can you work in a different area already can be settled under the Fair Work Act, by negotiation and agreement with staff, and that happens every day whether there's a pandemic or not. Unions work through those sorts of issues whether there's a pandemic or not, every day and that flexibility has always been in the Fair Work Act. The shift that is being spoken about is whether or not all of those changes can be made by direction. Some of them go to the duties that are being performed. And of course the view was, and the view that the government put to us, was that extra form of flexibility should be there because the Australian taxpayer was effectively subsidising the wage. That was the reason the government gave. Now the government is now saying that where there is no wage subsidy, where there's no support coming from the government, not only the flexibility that you've referred to doesn't have to be done by agreement but a cutting of hours, a slashing of conditions, shifting a full-timer to part-time. A direct attack on job security was put on the table by Josh Frydenberg yesterday and we won't be a part of attacking job security during a pandemic. Thanks very much.
 
ENDS