Australian Greens Senators' additional comments

1.1On behalf of Greens members, I want to thank the Chair for his detailed report and add my support to the majority of the points raised. I would also like to add a personal thanks to all those who supplied evidence to the inquiry. In providing these additional comments, the Australian Greens seek to supplement the recommendations included in the Chair’s report.

1.2Australia must have a fair and equitable industrial relations system that upholds the rights of all working people. We also need a system that appropriately protects workers in a changing labour market.

1.3The Australian Greens support the provisions in this bill as important changes to our workplace laws that will deliver real benefits and protections for Australian workers. We in particular support better standards for gig workers[1] and a stronger pathway to permanency for casuals.[2]

1.4Gig workers deserve a right to safe work and to a minimum wage, and the growing casualisation of our workforce has eroded workers’ protections and led to widespread job insecurity.

1.5Job insecurity entrenches inequalities in our society. These proposed changes will help protect those who can least defend themselves, in particular women, young people, and migrant workers.

1.6However, the submissions to this inquiry and the evidence gathered in the Senate Select Committee on Work and Care reiterate that more needs to be done to close the loopholes and protect Australian workers. Workers face problems on multiple fronts, with intrusive technology, insecure work, lagging real wages, gender inequality in the labour market, and wage theft negatively affecting the quality of work and our personal lives.

1.7The Australian labour market should not be run on a precarious workforce. One third of Australian workers are in some form of insecure, unpredictable work. It is time for a more direct and holistic reform of the security of employment. While this bill offers an improvement in a pathway to permanency for some workers, many other workers need a firmer route to security and access to basic conditions, including paid sick and annual leave.[3]

1.8The Australian Greens will continue to work with the Government to take this bill further including by improvements to intractable bargaining, strengthening protections for casual workers, and giving workers a right to disconnect.

1.9These additional comments highlight measures that the Australian Greens believe will strengthen the Closing Loopholes bill and address some of the key issues facing Australian workers.

Superannuation wage theft

1.10Employers who steal from their workers must pay the price.

1.11The Australian Taxation Office estimates that workers missed out on $3.4 billion in unpaid superannuation in 2019-2020.[4] Superannuation is a workplace entitlement and not an optional extra.

1.12The Australian Greens amendment has placed superannuation theft in a similar legal category to wage theft and ensures that workers are protected against bosses who want to avoid paying them what they are due.

1.13This measure passed as an amendment to the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Act 2023 in December 2023 and was supported by numerous stakeholders, including the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Centre for Future Work, and the Young Workers Centre.[5]

Casual workers

1.14The Australian Greens support greater protections for casual workers, who are often in precarious employment situations. This is why we are fighting to protect teachers and university lecturers from a double-barrelled disadvantage.

1.15Teachers and lecturers on fixed-term contracts will now be excluded from the definition of a casual worker, as supported by the National Tertiary Education Union.[6] Workers in schools and universities who are not ongoing employees will either be classified as fixed-term employees or casuals, not as both. Inpracticality, this means increased job security for thousands of staff at schools and universities.

Intractable bargaining

1.16The Government introduced in the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs Better Pay) Act 2022 provisions for the Fair Work Commission to intervene in bargaining that has reached an impasse. This aimed to prevent protracted bargaining disputes by giving the Fair Work Commission the power of compulsory arbitration.

1.17However, employers have since sought to use these provisions to reduce workers’ conditions by holding out during negotiations in the hope of having less favourable conditions arbitrated by the Commission. Workers must be protected from the disadvantage of having their hard-fought conditions wound back. This loophole needs to be closed.

1.18At the hearing on 10 November 2023, Australian Council of Trade Unions President Ms Michele O’Neil affirmed support for reform, agreeing that this change will ‘make a big difference to make the system work’.[7]

1.19The Australian Greens have pushed to improve intractable bargaining provisions, fixing a loophole in Australia’s arbitration system, protecting workers, and putting integrity back into the bargaining process.

Right to disconnect

1.20The Australian Greens call on the Government to implement a right for workers to disconnect from work outside of paid hours.

1.21Unpaid overtime is a systemic, multi-billion-dollar problem that robs Australian workers of time and money. A right to disconnect must be implemented in Australia to give all workers the right to turn off technology that ties them to work when their paid hours are done.

1.22This was one of the key recommendations of the Senate Select Committee on Work and Care. Recommendation 23 urges the Government to consider amending the Fair Work Act 2009 to include an enforceable ‘right to disconnect’.[8]

1.23In their submissions to the inquiry, the Health Services Union and National Tertiary Education Union highlighted the significant impact of unpaid work undertaken by healthcare workers and educators.[9]

1.24Evidence provided by the Independent Education Union of Australia observed that unpaid work particularly affects highly feminised industries such as education, with teachers, teachers’ aides, lab technicians, deputy principals and librarians all impacted.[10]

1.25At the hearing on 10 November 2023, the committee heard from teachers MsButler and Ms Yewdall that, as of a direct consequence of being unable to disconnect from work, they are burnt out and considering leaving the profession.[11]

1.26Unpaid overtime is ubiquitous, has untold financial, physical, mental, and social costs, and demands urgent action through a right to disconnect.

1.27As raised by several submitters, a right to disconnect should be enshrined at the federal level.[12] Evidence provided by the Australian Federal Police Association argued for a harmonised federal approach as this right is working ‘extremely well’ for Victorian police.[13] Australian workers want to see an industrial relations system that works for them. It is time that the labour market catches up, and employers have had plenty of time to consider these changes.

1.28The Australian Greens have already secured amendments in the Closing Loopholes bill that will improve working conditions. The Greens urge the Parliament to support the Greens’ amendments and to legislate a right to disconnect for workers.

Senator Barbara Pocock

Substitute member

Senator for South Australia

Footnotes

[1]Associate Professor Chris F. Wright, Submission 21, p. 6; Centre for Future Work, Submission 108, pp. 7-9; Senate Select Committee on Work and Care, Final Report, p. xx; St Vincent de Paul Society, Submission 121, p. 4; Working Women’s Centre S.A., Submission 105, p. 2.

[2]Commonwealth and Public Sector Union, Proof Committee Hansard, 10 November 2023, pp. 5–6; StVincent de Paul Society, Submission 121, p. 2.

[3]Senate Select Committee on Work and Care, Final Report, p. 185.

[4]Australian Taxation Office, ‘Latest estimates and trends’, Australian Taxation Office, 30 October 2023, https://www.ato.gov.au/about-ato/research-and-statistics/in-detail/tax-gap/previous-years-analysis/superannuation-guarantee-gap-2019-20/latest-estimates-and-trends?anchor=Latestestimatesandtrends#Latestestimatesandtrends (accessed 25 January 2024).

[5]Ms Michele O’Neil, President, Australian Council of Trade Unions, Proof Committee Hansard, 10November 2023, p. 25; Centre for Future Work, Submission 108, p. 11; Ms Felicity Sowerbutts, Director, Young Workers Centre, Proof Committee Hansard, 10 October 2023, p. 40.

[6]National Tertiary Education Union, Submission 114, pp. 5–6.

[7]Ms Michele O’Neil, President, Australian Council of Trade Unions, Proof Committee Hansard, 10November 2023, p. 24.

[8]Senate Select Committee on Work and Care, Final Report, p. xviii.

[9]Health Services Union, Submission 32, pp. 13–20; National Tertiary Education Union, Submission114, p. 2.

[10]Independent Education Union of Australia, Proof Committee Hansard, 10 November 2023, p. 45.

[11]Independent Education Union of Australia, Proof Committee Hansard, 10 November 2023, p. 49.

[12]Independent Education Union of Australia, Proof Committee Hansard, 10 November 2023, p. 49; Professor Andrew Stewart, Proof Committee Hansard, 10 November 2023, p. 63.

[13]Australian Federal Police Association, Proof Committee Hansard, 3 October 2023, pp. 59–60.