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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 4219 ..

MS MacDONALD (continuing):

I am pleased to say that the ACT Labor government is committed to ensuring that all ACT workers have working arrangements that allow them to balance their work and other life commitments, something that conservative governments have absolutely no interest in doing. The passing of my motion today will result in the government investigating whether there are problems with workers accessing long service leave in the ACT and developing options to address those problems, which may include amendments to the Long Service Leave Act. Without pre-empting, I can already see that they will find that there are problems. As I have already said, from my experience there are great disparities and it is time that we moved on.

Consistency with New South Wales laws is a problem. ACT laws are similar to New South Wales laws, except in one respect. Where workers are made redundant, they may be paid out their long service leave on a pro rata basis even though no entitlement to take long service leave exists. Currently, ACT workers who have been made redundant can be paid pro rata long service leave after they have been working for their employer for seven years, except, as I said, in the clerical industry and a couple of other industries.

In New South Wales, redundant employees can be paid a pro rata long service leave benefit after just five years, which is the most generous provision in the Australian jurisdictions for the private sector. I would suggest that it is one that we all need to be moving towards in order to recognise the contribution that workers make nationally, through the efforts that they put in wherever they work. ACT laws need to be amended to allow for more generous redundancy benefits available under New South Wales laws.

The effect on women of the current arrangements is of particular concern to me. At the moment, a woman who takes leave from work to have a baby or care for a child has to start accruing long service leave all over again upon return to work. I find that to be unacceptable. It is, of course, a very real impediment to women. I would say that it is actually a discriminatory provision.

The government will consult with employers and unions about the possibility of amending ACT laws so that the periods of service with an employer that are broken by leave to care for children do not interrupt long service leave accrual. This would have significant benefits for working parents and would make ACT workplaces more family friendly, something that we should be working towards.

I understand that the government will also consider whether there is a need to extend portable long service leave arrangements to other industries where the nature of employment affects the ability of workers to access long service leave. I understand that this proposal could impose significant additional costs on employers and I understand that the government needs to consult further with both employers and unions. Today, I am suggesting that we need to start identifying the areas of particular concern, while saying that they are things that we do need to address. We cannot just go on saying that we are not going to do it because it would cost too much. We need to find the most effective and efficient way of addressing those problems and creating fair and equitable working conditions for all ACT employees.

Finally, I call on the Assembly to reject the proposal of the Cole royal commission to remove portable long service leave schemes from the construction industry. That is just a blatant attack on hard-working employees in the construction industry. From looking at

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