Page 3095 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014

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(2) calls on the Government to ensure that it:

(a) acknowledges that strengthening workers’ rights and conditions is important for economic prosperity;

(b) continues to support small business in the ACT through the Business Development Strategy and through red tape reduction; and

I rise today to comment on the commonwealth’s Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014, which passed the House of Representatives and was introduced into the Senate on 27 August 2014. The bill seeks to make amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 to implement elements of federal coalition policy. Unfortunately, aspects of the bill will have adverse effects on many of Canberra’s workers.

The Fair Work Act as it currently stands promotes workplace flexibility through the use of individual flexibility arrangements. These IFAs allow for variations to modern awards or enterprise agreements in order to meet needs of employers and individual employees. To ensure that minimum entitlements, standards and protections are not undermined, the act requires the employer to ensure that the employee is better off overall under the arrangement than they would be under the award or the enterprise bargaining agreement. This bill dangerously expands the provision to allow the consideration of non-monetary benefits in the “better off overall” test. This opens the door for employers to negotiate IFAs which require employees to forgo overtime or penalty payments for working certain hours because those hours are preferred by the employee.

I think that anyone who lives in the real world realises the necessity of safeguards on these measures. Anyone who has zero dollars in the bank at the end of a pay week knows that an unfair pay cut looks better than not being able to cover rent or the mortgage.

I know great employers, and I have had many great employers, but I have also seen businesses at their worst. I know there is a need for oversight bodies on individual contracts, because I know that there are employees who are currently so afraid to lose their employment that they take way below the award pay. I have no doubt that there are employers out there in our Canberra community who will take advantage of these provisions to strip vulnerable workers of their conditions. I think it shows an appalling disconnect with reality to not offer oversight on these processes and the capacity for Fair Work to offer back pay where employees are not better off.

I also know that there are lots of good employers who will suffer under a system where the few bad eggs push down labour costs by exploiting vulnerable workers. There are employers in our community who know that their staff have families and have lives. They respect that the people waiting tables in their restaurants are giving up a social life, giving up sports matches and homework with their kids. They are happy to pay them fair wages that compensate them for what they are giving up.

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