Page 1395 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 3 May 2016
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will now be eligible for portable long service leave. For too long, people with high levels of short-term employment in many industries have been disadvantaged in relation to their ability to access long service leave. They have not had the ability to work for just one employer and to accrue long service leave in accordance with the previous legislation. This legislation is a great advance for workers in the territory.
I understand from the minister that one in five workers in Australia have been with their current employer for less than one year and that three out of four will work for their current employer for less than the 10 years required to attain long service leave. As you would understand, Madam Deputy Speaker, this means that overall there is an erosion of leave entitlements for those workers.
The Long Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Amendment Bill will ensure that Canberrans employed in industries characterised by this type of short-term employment and contract work—and I note the high mobility of work for all of us these days, as well as the number of part-time and casual employees—will be recognised for their hard work and will be entitled to access some form of long service leave.
I understand from the minister that it is also about creating a fairer system, promoting workplace rights and facilitating sustainable career paths. Aged-care workers, as we have heard, earn $43,000 on average, and the work is back-breaking and emotional. This legislation provides them with a hard-earned break every five years, as it does for long-term workers. This scheme will also benefit the general community by attracting workers to the aged-care industry. Given the ACT’s ageing population, this is a great employment incentive.
I also admire the fact that the bill removes inequalities by extending the existing scheme covering the community and contract cleaning industries to the aged-care and waste management sector. Under the new rules, nearly 6,000 more Canberrans will be able to accrue long service leave. Many of them receive low average salaries. The bill makes provision for the Long Service Leave Authority governing board to make minor adjustments to employer levies, to meet the prevailing economic circumstances of the covered industries.
Ongoing engagement with stakeholders will be undertaken by the minister and his staff to ensure a smooth transition for employers and workers, no doubt with a formal consultation process with unions, employers and community groups and industrial associations, similar to what occurred prior to the introduction of the bill. I commend the bill to members.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Minister for Planning and Land Management, Minister for Racing and Gaming and Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations) (12.00), in reply: Long service leave, as we know, is a well-established employee entitlement in Australia, with origins in the 19th century. Since then, the entitlement has continuously evolved to extend benefits to a wide range of employees, reduce the qualifying and vesting periods and increase the amount of leave granted. This has occurred through state legislation, the award system and some collective agreements as well. Long service leave has become well established in Australia because of a high degree of community consensus on its benefits.
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