Page 4183 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 26 November 2013
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2009. While the bill does not give effect to any material change in policy, it will ensure that the authority is able to effectively administer each of the four portable schemes. The bill clarifies that a person can be an employer under the act and must be registered for a portable scheme if they employ someone to carry out work in the industry for another person who is engaged in the industry, whether or not they are engaged in the industry or are part of a traditional employment relationship. This will ensure that labour hire arrangements, which are widely used in several covered industries, are clearly captured by the act.
Under these arrangements, individuals work for agencies that hire them out to organisations as they are needed. Often the labour hire firm is the relevant employer for the purposes of the portable schemes. This change is not, however, designed to capture those people that are simply employment agents who only introduce prospective employees to employers. The bill also changes the definition of building and construction industry for that industry’s portable scheme to confirm that repair work is within the scope of the scheme. Amendments also put beyond doubt that apprentices carrying on building and construction work through a registered training organisation must be registered for the scheme.
The government is strongly committed to supporting and encouraging apprentices. For that reason, employers that register apprentices are not charged a levy even though the apprentices can begin to earn long service leave. The authority also works closely with the Education and Training Directorate to make sure employers know how to register their apprentices. It is important that workers that are eligible for a portable scheme are registered. The bill supports this objective by clarifying that senior staff who directly supervise workers on building and construction sites should, themselves, be registered.
The act currently provides for the responsible minister to provide certainty in specific circumstances by declaring whether or not a person is a worker or an employer for the portable scheme. The bill clarifies when it is appropriate to exercise this power and the matters that should be included in a ministerial declaration. It also makes clear that the power may be exercised in relation to both individuals and classes of people under the act.
The bill also addresses a number of technical and administrative matters brought to the attention of the minister by the ACT Long Service Leave Authority. Since the act was last amended, the authority has worked closely with the Office of Industrial Relations to review how the law operates in practice.
As part of this process, several small but important changes were identified that would assist the authority to more readily interpret and apply the law in specific circumstances. The definition of ordinary remuneration will be changed to add additional detail to explicitly deal with payments for workers compensation, superannuation and termination of employment. The new definition also clarifies that travel, meal and protective clothing allowances are not ordinary remuneration for the purposes of the act. These changes reflect longstanding practice by the authority in administering the schemes.
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