Page 3763 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 24 September 2019
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where the rules have been breached, timely and affordable resolution is critical. The opposition will continue to monitor these changes to ensure that that objective is in fact achieved.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong) (11.23): The Greens will be supporting the Courts (Fair Work and Work Safety) Amendment Bill today. We believe that all workers should have access to a fair and equitable industrial relations system, including accessible independent systems for conciliation and arbitration of workplace disputes. We are committed to working with the ACT government to maintain workplace laws of the highest standards, to ensuring that harmonisation processes do not weaken workplace protections—the unions having the right to prosecute for breaches of work health and safety laws—and to making sure that workers receive appropriate compensation in work health and safety cases.
This bill takes steps to make court processes more accessible for people pursuing fair work claims in the ACT. It aims to make hearings faster and to provide clarity around procedures. Undertaking court proceedings for fair work cases can be fraught, and the provisions in this bill to streamline processes and to redirect to mediation where appropriate should serve to ease the financial and time burden on those involved in work health and safety cases.
The bill makes amendments that clarify the Magistrates Court’s jurisdiction to hear fair work matters regardless of the amount in dispute, ensure that fair work matters will be heard in the industrial court within the Magistrates Court, provide for compulsory mediation for all fair work matters in the Magistrates Court, enable officials of industrial associations, whether the association represents employees, employers or independent contractors, to represent parties to fair work small claims matters, and introduce an objects clause that provides for the timely, inexpensive and informal resolution of fair work claims in the Magistrates Court.
Amongst the amendments to a range of acts, the change to allow ACAT to move matters involving fair work claims to the Magistrates Court makes sense, as ACAT has no jurisdiction in these matters. Importantly, the bill also includes amendments that should ensure that an offence committed by a corporation under section 31 of the Work Health and Safety Act can be tried on indictment, make corporations subject to the same procedures as individuals for offences punishable summarily, clarify that the industrial court can exercise the jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court when hearing criminal proceedings involving corporations, and clarify the definitions of relevant offence and serious offence to ensure that where a corporation is charged with an offence under section 31 of the Work Health and Safety Act the offence can be a relevant offence or serious offence.
We recognise that the scrutiny committee has raised some concerns about representation in small claims and general claims and accept that the measures taken by the directorate and the avenues available in law will mitigate any negative impacts for injured parties.
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