Bosses maintain their rage against IR reform bill
Business groups insist casual and labour hire amendments are a smokescreen.
Employer groups have dismissed the Albanese government’s proposed changes to the Closing Loopholes bill, insisting the casual and labour hire amendments were a “smokescreen” and the reforms should be dumped.
Furious over an agreement this week between the government and the Australian Hotels Association over casual provisions, rival business groups put out another joint statement demanding Labor “go back to the drawing board” and withdraw the bill.
“What we are seeing now is simply an attempt at trying to patch a sinking boat with a Post-It note,” they said.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke will remove the proposed ban on employers misrepresenting permanent employment as casual to ensure heavy penalties not apply to companies that mistakenly misclassify an employee.
The government will make amendments to address concerns that casuals could not be employed with regular patterns of work if they wanted to be. It will confirm that it is possible for a person to work regular hours and still meet the definition of casual employee.
Mr Burke also committed to labour hire changes to ensure services contractors are not caught in the new same job, same pay provisions.
The employer statement said the business groups were unconvinced the changes would fix what they regard as a fundamentally flawed bill.
“We encourage the government to listen to the genuine concerns of businesses large and small, that the proposed (bill) will ultimately drive up business costs which will hit Australian households in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis,” they said.
“There is insufficient evidence to support such drastic and unwarranted legislative changes,” they said. “Ad hoc amendments will simply add to the complexity, not address it, and will make it harder for businesses to employ workers.”
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