ACTU call for ‘fairer, stronger’ industrial relations reform
Unions accuse BHP, Qantas and Uber of exploiting legislative loopholes.
The ACTU has called for Labor’s industrial relations changes to be further strengthened in favour of workers, accusing major companies including BHP, Qantas and Uber of exploiting legislative loopholes for commercial gain.
In a submission to the Senate inquiry into the Closing Loopholes Bill, the ACTU hit back at employer attacks on the changes, calling for the bill to be passed in full subject to 44 amendments it says will improve the legislation.
“Returning balance and fairness to our industrial relations system is not an attack on businesses at large,” the submission says. “Rather, it is in recognition of our current laws having been dragged to their present state by some well-resourced big corporates who have engaged teams of lawyers to identify and apply every possible exception or loophole in the current laws.”
The ACTU’s proposed amendments include expressly permitting applications for regulated labour hire arrangement orders to be heard together in appropriate circumstances; superannuation to be included in the wage theft offence and protections for union delegates to be further strengthened.
It wants contractual chain provisions added to the road transport industry measures; the Fair Work Commission given the direct ability to arbitrate on the question of whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor, and; the extension of “employee-like” provisions to all “employee-like” workers, irrespective of whether they are engaged by a platform.
The peak union body accused BHP, an outspoken critic of the bill, of using complicated corporate structuring to operate its own labour hire company for the BHP group on terms less favourable than its other employees.
The ACTU said it was common to see multiple different rates of pay apply to different Qantas cabin crew on the same flight while Uber“not only deny the employment or employment-like nature of their workers, but even go so far as to deny that they have any sort of contractual relationship with their workforce altogether”.
“Sadly, the big end of town has been aided and abetted in their efforts to strip away working conditions at large by past governments,” the ACTU said.
“In response to the deterioration of working conditions, laid bare by a cost-of-living crisis, Australians voted for change. Part of that change, the part before parliament now, involves making sure existing loopholes in our industrial laws can no longer be cynically exploited by those employers with the resources to identify and take advantage of them.
“The Closing Loopholes bill will plug several gaps that need to be addressed if we are to embrace the concept that all workers should be treated fairly.”
The ACTU says casual employment will continue to be an available, valid form of engagement where it is genuine and reflects the preferences of both parties, but will not be a means of denying workers their right to entitlements such as leave while demanding their undivided loyalty.
If the bill is passed, wage theft will be harder for employers to get away with as there will be real deterrence measures and the evidence so critical to investigations will be more readily obtained.
It says workers who are not employees will receive appropriate rights and protections “instead of nothing at all”, while workers engaged by labour hire companies on far lesser conditions than those with whom they work side by side will be fairly, equally remunerated.
Meanwhile, in its submission to the inquiry, Rio Tinto says Labor’s “far-reaching” IR changes risk anchoring productivity at record low levels and undermining Australia’s global competitiveness at a critical juncture for the energy transition.
The mining giant says the same job, same pay provisions will extend beyond labour hire to services contractors. “Not only does such application risk undermining arrangements agreed to between employees and employers in those businesses but, for mining, it threatens productive models of service delivery that are central to attracting investment in Australia,” the company says.
More Coverage
Islamic leaders condemn alleged attack against sheik
Leading Islamic bodies have condemned an alleged attack on prominent Sydney sheik and Muslim Vote convener Wesam Charkawi, criticising the NSW and federal Labor governments’ ‘silence’.
Private funding push for new Games stadium
A new front has opened up in the battle over Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic venues, as the mayor leads a fresh push backed by hundreds of public submissions for private funding for a new stadium.