Page 1124 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 May 2020
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Protecting workers within labour hire licensing businesses is a crucial step in ending worker exploitation. This bill will provide that means to screen labour hire businesses and ensure that they meet standards when they enter the industry and will continue to do so for as long as they are operating. Ending exploitation benefits us all, and I am glad to see that the ACT is leading the way. I commend this bill to the Assembly.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Children, Youth and Families and Minister for Health) (5.19): This bill is yet another example of why I am a proud member of this ACT Labor government—a government that prioritises the rights of workers in our community. This has been evidenced through the government’s prioritisation of legislation to ensure that workers have a say on health and safety on new construction projects, the creation of an independent WorkSafe ACT and the secure local jobs code, to name only a few recent examples.
We know, through stories we have heard in our electorates in this place, and particularly during the Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Youth Affairs inquiry into the extent, nature and consequence of insecure work in the ACT, that labour hire workers—alongside many other workers engaged in insecure work—are some of the most vulnerable workers in our community. As I said in this place, in September 2018:
We know labour hire services are used in the territory for many legitimate reasons, but we also know that the current regulatory framework is not sufficient to deal with the unscrupulous practices which some labour hire firms engage in.
I am pleased to support this bill, which introduces the regulatory framework that will protect these workers. Labour hire staff are too often sent to work at workplaces where they do similar work to those they work alongside but with fewer workplace rights, sometimes with less pay, and almost always with very little job security. Too often we have seen unscrupulous operators making a significant profit on the back of these vulnerable workers. That is not to say that everyone in the labour hire sector operates this way. As is the case with the secure local jobs code and its associated measures, the labour hire licensing scheme will create a level playing field for those operators who are doing the right thing by their workers.
As has been outlined, the bill will require that labour hire operators pass suitable person tests and demonstrate a history of doing the right thing by their workers to be deemed a licensed labour hire operator. By the creation of a public register of labour hire licence holders, businesses who seek to employ labour through a third party can be assured that a licensed labour hire operator treats their workers with respect. Importantly, it will provide assurance to workers that the labour hire firm that they may be looking to join can demonstrate a positive track record.
As others have said, workers who are treated with respect and paid fairly are more productive and happier workers. That will be critical as our community recovers together through COVID-19, bushfires and beyond. The ACT government has undertaken significant work to limit the use of insecure work arrangements in our own
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