Coronavirus: Christian Porter warns Labor, unions over Fair Work battle

Christian Porter has vowed that legislation to alter the Fair Work Act will pass on Wednesday “no matter how late we have to sit.”

Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter at a press conference at Parliament House today. Picture: AAP.

Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter has ordered unions and Labor not to stand in the way of changes to the Fair Work Act needed to implement the government’s $130 billion wage subsidy, setting up a potential showdown when an extraordinary session of parliament sits on Wednesday to consider the amendments.

Mr Porter’s vow that the legislation to alter the Fair Work Act will pass on Wednesday “no matter how late we have to sit”, comes after union chief Sally McManus said she would recommend Labor, Greens and the crossbench oppose the wage subsidy if it meant changing the Fair Work Act.

As revealed by the Weekend Australian, bipartisan support for the coronavirus response is fracturing, with Labor warning it does not support the government’s plan to legislate the $1,500 per fortnight wage subsidy through changes to the underlying workplace laws.

Christian Porter Attorney General just concluded a press announcement on ABC waving big stick, no ifs, no butts if the ACTU & Labor don’t fall in line, No wage subsidies. ACTU & Labor stand your ground, call his bluff, no Brownie points for getting screwed by Morrison & Porter. https://t.co/hzj6HkWnJ3

— Sandra Hey (@hey630) April 5, 2020

Mr Porter’s commitment follows advice he gave to the expenditure review committee of cabinet last Sunday that the package could not be implemented without authorising changes to the Fair Work Act.

He said the JobKeeper Allowa­nce did not displace an employer’s existing obligation under the Fair Work Act 2009.

“We will not be waiting or hoping that this change can be affected over the coming weeks or months by changing 121 awards and thousands of individual enterprise agreements. This change will be happening next Wednesday,” Mr Porter said on Sunday afternoon.

“No matter how late we have to sit, the change will be happening next Wednesday. Six million Australian jobs depend on it.

“Next Wednesday, we are pushing a $130 billion lifeboat out into the roughest economic seas Australia has ever seen and people will need to decide whether or not they are going to help us push that boat out, but it is going out on Wednesday, and we are not going to be arguing about timing and process and speculative possibilities in the weeks and months to come. This and the changes necessary to make JobKeeper happen are happening next Wednesday.”

Union boss @sallymcmanus strongly opposes govt plans to temporarily amend the Fair Work Act to allow Job Keeper payments to be made.

"The Fair Work Act is workers' rights. Just don't tinker with the workers' rights." #Insiders #Auspol pic.twitter.com/Hi44mJTNQP

— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) April 4, 2020

Mr Porter also said he would have a draft of the legislation by Monday, and would work through the drafts with Ms McManus “line by line in a cooperative, open, frank and honest way”.

“I want them (the Australian Council of Trade Unions) to have comfort that what we are doing is time-bound, that it has the requisite safeguards and mechanisms in it to ensure that there is not rorting of the system. But ultimately the laws need to change...If you don’t change the laws, people don’t get the money and they can’t pay their mortgage, it’s that simple,” he said.

Mr Porter said he would consider Ms McManus’ suggestion that the definition of eligibility for the JobKeeper payment be expanded to anyone who “reasonably expected” to be working were it not for coronavirus, including casuals who have been employed for less than 12 months.

Mr Porter also sought to assure those concerned the Fair Work Act changes have a sunset date built in, but acknowledged “a high level of honesty is going to be expected” of employers filling out self assessment applications how distressed their business is.

Earlier on Sunday, Ms McManus, the Australian Council of Trade Unions Secretary, said: “Labor and the Greens and the crossbenchers - we are saying to them that they should oppose changes to the Fair Work Act because they’re just not necessary.”

She said unions also wanted to see eligibility for the wage subsidy expanded so that casuals who had worked for less than 12 months, and anybody who “reasonably expected” to be working will be covered.

“We’re worried that if you change the rights of workers unfortunately some employers might abuse that,” Ms McManus told ABC’s Insiders.

Ms McManus said she had worked to make changes to awards affecting millions of workers in “about a week”, which proved the subsidy could “happen by cooperation, not by legislation”, also saying: “Not every instrument needs to change, not every enterprise agreement”

“There’s lots of industries at the moment that aren’t affected, or are actually doing well under this crisis because they’ve got a lot more business. You think about all of the utilities still working. There’s no need to change those agreements and if you have it imposed on workers, well then some employers unfortunately might take advantage of it.

“So we believe everything can be done without changing the current system. Remember the Fair Work Act is workers’ rights. Just don’t tinker with those workers’ rights, we can make this happen.”

Ms McManus said one key concern of a change to the Fair Work Act being considered was a provision for business owners to direct their employees to take leave, saying the JobKeeper scheme should not be used “to subsidise the leave entitlements”.

“Workers will make that decision to take leave rather than being on the JobKeeper allowance, because it’s going to be more money. But a whole lot of other employers that aren’t affected, well, should they just be able to direct everyone to take their leave? That doesn’t sound like it’s a fair situation.”

"We think it's far too early to be saying that there should be any freezes on the minimum wage,"@sallymcmanus.#Auspol #Insiders pic.twitter.com/XZytEhl1H8

— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) April 4, 2020

She said forcing leave to be taken would have an adverse effect when Australia lifts restrictions and local workers have less leave to be able to go on domestic holidays to support the tourism industry.

On expanding the wage subsidy to include casuals who had not been working for the same employer for 12 months, Ms McManus said she wanted eligibility for the scheme to be based on a legal principle of whether workers “could have reasonably expected to be working if it were not for the coronavirus”.

.@sallymcmanus says the pandemic has shown there are too many insecure jobs in Australia.

"We need more permanent jobs for more Australians."#Auspol #Insiders pic.twitter.com/q3XeteU4bR

— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) April 4, 2020

“I think it’s reasonable to draw the line somewhere absolutely. I think the best way of thinking about it is if you could have reasonably expected to be working if it were not for the coronavirus, then you should get the JobKeeper allowance.

“Unfortunately in our country we’ve become so dependent on casual work and so many employers would have had their casual workers working … So that is because either you had shifts booked, or you’ve been promised that you’d be working. There’s a reasonableness test to it.”

Ms McManus also acknowledged some lower paid workers would earn more under the JobKeeper, while some higher earners would be worse off, but said “you’ve got to take those swings and roundabouts”.