Page 1118 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 May 2020
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government should be doing everything possible to support apprentices in our community.
Group training organisations have, for many years, provided an effective mix of on-and-off job training through apprenticeships and traineeships, and have ensured a steady stream of skilled tradespeople coming through the ACT. At the same time, they guarantee that apprentices continue in employment during their training and also offer apprentices exposure to various projects or workplaces in their training, resulting in a far more well-rounded, qualified person at the end.
More young people are employed as apprentices and trainees through a group training organisation than any other single employer or employer network. Over 22, mostly not-for-profit, registered group training organisations operate in the ACT, and these new laws risk losing these very providers and the jobs that they create in our city. We are now talking about hundreds of apprentices and trainees potentially at risk because of the inclusion of group training organisations in the definition of “labour hire”.
Apprentices and trainees employed through a group training organisation are signed through a training contract that is approved and authorised by Skills Canberra under a strict set of guidelines, so the regulations exist. They are in place and, by all accounts, they are working well.
Canberra’s group training organisations have a strong and stable reputation of supporting workers and employees alike. The minister said in her presentation speech:
Reputable labour hire providers in the territory have everything to gain from this bill. They will be shown to be ethical, responsible businesses that comply with workplace laws that protect their workers.
The minister should have said that this will be yet another hurdle in the way of people being able to get jobs, which is the last thing needed in Canberra at this time. Her words are cold comfort for the businesses and the groups captured in this unnecessary bill.
This is not the time for inflexibility on the part of the ACT government as our economy is rapidly heading over a cliff. The opposition will not be supporting the Labour Hire Licensing Bill. Instead, we will stand on the side of apprentices and those who train and employ them in our community.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong) (4.59): The Greens support this bill, which establishes a licensing scheme to regulate labour hire operators here in the territory. Labour hire is a form of indirect employment whereby, instead of employing people, a company will contract an agency, referred to as a labour hire organisation, to provide workers in return for a fee. Essentially, the labour hire company rents out workers to another company for a fee.
Under the scheme proposed in this bill, any labour hire providers operating in the territory would need to hold a labour hire licence. To gain such a licence they would need to demonstrate that they comply with a range of relevant workplace standards
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