Page 1100 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 3 May 2022
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Employment—conditions and entitlements
MR PETTERSSON (Yerrabi) (2.54): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes that:
(a) over two million Australians are employed casually, representing around one in five Australian workers;
(b) people working in casualised work are some of the most economically vulnerable in our community;
(c) certain occupations and industries are highly insecure and workers in these industries do not usually have access to sick and carer’s pay;
(d) sick and carer’s pay provides financial security and protects workers wellbeing when they are unable to attend work;
(e) the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the dangers to workers and our workplaces when insecure workers feel compelled, for financial reasons, to attend work whilst sick; and
(f) the Victorian Government has recently announced it will introduce the Victorian Sick Pay Guarantee to provide up to five paid sick days for casual workers per year;
(2) acknowledges the work of the ACT Government to:
(a) better protect workers by legislating a labour hire licensing scheme that has promoted responsible practices in the labour hire services industry;
(b) utilise its purchasing power to improve standards in certain industries through the Secure Local Jobs Code;
(c) implement and expand the portable long service leave scheme to ensure that workers in transient industries are able to access this workplace entitlement;
(d) protect workers who lost their job in the COVID-19 pandemic with the Jobs for Canberrans initiative; and
(e) establish the Secure Employment Framework to support the transition from insecure work arrangements to permanency within the ACT public sector; and
(3) calls on the ACT Government to:
(a) continue to materially improve the working conditions of ACT residents; and
(b) investigate providing sick and carer’s pay for casual and contract workers who work in industries that do not usually have access to sick and carer’s pay. This investigative work should be undertaken in consultation with relevant trade unions and other stakeholders.
The nature of work and our workplaces is changing; employers are increasingly turning to casual workers to fill roles that should be permanent. As a result, casual work has become endemic in our society. More people are spending longer employed
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