Coronavirus: Employers warn casuals ruling threatens jobs

Employers have declared a major ruling on casuals will increase the risks of widespread job losses when the JobKeeper scheme ends.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox. Picture: AAP

Casuals could win increased rights to convert to permanent employment as part of workplace law changes being examined by the government as it moves urgently to protect employers from the ­financial impact of a major court ruling.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said potential changes to casual conversion were on the agenda in the wake of the full Federal Court judgment on Wednesday that business warned would increase the prospect of job losses when the JobKeeper scheme ended in September.

Workers on regular casual shifts will be entitled to seek paid leave following the ruling, which exposes employers to billions in back-pay claims and has prompted the government to flag legislative changes.

WorkPac, the labour hire firm that lost the case, has yet to declare whether it will challenge the full Federal Court decision in the High Court. Industry sources said they believed a challenge was likely and Mr Porter said the commonwealth would intervene if WorkPac took further court action

Mr Porter said casual conversion would be discussed during his talks with employers and unions.

“For many casuals, there is a right, if they have been in the same position for a considerable period of time, to request a conversion from casual to permanency, but that right is not universal,” he said.

“And it seems clear to the government … that part of the negoti­ations and consultations that have to now occur on an urgent basis with employers and employees is around the issue of casual conversion and a greater clarity and certainty and universality to that right of request.”

ACTU secretary Sally McMan­us said unions supported a universal right to request.

Attorney-General Christian Porter. Picture: AAP

Mr Porter said the court decision was “unfortunately a driver of uncertainty into the employment market” during the COVID-19 ­economic crisis.

“The fact that we have a decision that needs to clarify that and has, in effect, produced very substantial changes in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic when Australian business, particularly small business, probably faces its greatest-ever challenge in Australian history indicates that there are some very significant shortcomings in Australia’s industrial relations system and that it’s been operating with a degree of uncertainty for some time,” he said.

Labor industrial relations spokesman Tony Burke said claims by the Australian Industry Group that businesses faced $8bn in backpay claims would be true only if there had been “widespread breaking of the law by Australian employers”.

“If employers have been acting in breach of the law, if they have been refusing to give employees the security that they were legally entitled to, then the last thing the parliament should be doing is catering as a protection racket to cover the people who have broken the law,” he said.

Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox said the unfair dismissal laws, the JobKeeper laws and long service leave laws expressly recognised that casuals often worked on a regular and systematic basis for more than 12 months.

“The Federal Court’s decision flies in the face of widespread industry practice,” he said. “The risk and uncertainty caused by the decision will encourage ‘double-dipping’ claims by employees engaged and paid as cas­uals; ­discourage employers from retaining casuals, including at the time when the JobKeeper scheme ends; and discourage employers from ­engaging new employees.”