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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Thursday, 1 July 2004) . . Page.. 3230 ..

birth of a child and many others find that their level of responsibility and respect is diminished if they cannot get work. Governments have a duty to ensure not only that the entitlements of part-time workers are equivalent to those of their full-time counterparts but also that employers pay due regard to the availability of part-time work and afford due respect to their part-time staff.

I hope that this bill is only a first step in addressing the needs of part-time workers. I hope that the government intends to continue to move forward in promoting part-time work as a viable alternative in the modern workplace, particularly in the interests of working women. On the whole, we have to make our employment system fairer and allow for the employment of a more diverse range of people.

MRS CROSS (9.59): Mr Speaker, it is always positive to end a sitting period with a unanimous vote on a good bill, and I rise to express my support for this bill, the Annual Leave Amendment Bill 2003.

At present, those who work less than 22.8 hours a week on average are not eligible for annual leave. This is a legacy of a past era when most people who were employed were employed on a full-time basis. Today there are many more people employed on a part-time or casual basis than there were in the years gone by.

As at the last census, 66.6 per cent of those employed in the ACT were employed full-time and 31.2 per cent were employed on a part-time basis. In 1991 70.1 per cent of those employed in the ACT were employed full-time with 25.6 per cent employed on a part-time basis. This is a considerable change in people’s work status in only the last decade.

These part-time and casual employees should not be discriminated against because of their work status. This bill removes part of that discrimination, ensuring that all employees are entitled to annual leave if they forgo leave loading. All employees should be entitled to annual leave on a pro-rata basis. This bill achieves that. Therefore, I commend the bill to the Assembly and support the minister.

MS GALLAGHER (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Children, Youth and Family Support, Minister for Women and Minister for Industrial Relations) (10.01), in reply: The last decade has seen a significant increase in part-time employment. The government is committed to ensuring that there is a fair and balanced industrial relations framework in the ACT and that these workers are not disadvantaged in their working conditions. This bill makes an amendment to the Annual Leave Act 1973, removing a barrier preventing the accrual of annual leave by part-time employees who work less than 22.8 hours a week on average.

The Annual Leave Act currently provides that employees who work less than 22 hours a week or receive a loading in substitution for annual leave under an award or agreement are not entitled to annual leave. The restriction of annual leave to those working more than 22.8 hours a week reflects the restrictions that were formerly placed on part-time employment in federal industrial awards. Employees were previously required to give part-time employees a minimum number of hours engagement each week.

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