Page 1126 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 May 2020
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What is even worse is that not only are these workers being exploited in their payslips; they are often putting themselves in harm’s way. When you face instant unemployment, would you feel comfortable raising health and safety issues at your temporary place of employment, when you are an at-call worker and you cannot even identify which boss is responsible for your safety today? It is easy to understand why these workers stay silent. Let us be very clear: in the ACT right now there are rogue labour hire operators who exploit vulnerable workers and underpay them. This is not some theoretical issue. It is real and it is occurring every day. We must act.
It is important to point out, at this time, some of the arguments that some have made—some in this chamber, some in local media. Some have said that we should wait until there is a harmonised federal program before we act. To them I would say, “How long should we wait?” I would also hope that those watching this debate see the hollowness of their words. They do not actually want labour hire licensing. It is a stalling tactic. If they were genuine in wanting a harmonised federal scheme, they would actively advocate for it. They do not. They sit there silently. All they want is to throw as many roadblocks in the way as they can.
There are some who would say that we do not need new laws; we just need to enforce the laws that we already have. I think it is time for them to open their eyes. What many of these labour hire companies do is legal; they are not breaking the law. They are using our current laws to exploit vulnerable workers in our community and avoid their liabilities. To those who would say that this is more red tape at the wrong time for our economy, I would say that an economic recovery on the backs of exploited workers is immoral and unjust. The flip side of their thinking must be that paying workers less and removing protections must therefore be good for the economy—a very revealing insight.
I will now refer more directly to this bill and to the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Youth Affairs. I think it is important to reflect on those recommendations because we spent a fair bit of time coming up with them. A recommendation that I particularly wanted to highlight was that a business and its key personnel must pass an objective fit-and-proper-person test. Such a test would consider whether the company or key personnel had any previous breaches of occupational health and safety laws, any past convictions of fraud, dishonesty or violence, and any past involvement in insolvent businesses; that the business must demonstrate via administrative records that it pays its employees in accordance with at least the minimum rates specified in the relevant industrial instrument; that the labour hire company be registered with the Australian Taxation Office and be deducting taxation and remitting superannuation on behalf of employees; that, if the business provides accommodation, the business must demonstrate that the accommodation meets standards required under the applicable laws and regulations; that the business must be registered with WorkSafe and be paying any required premiums; and that the business demonstrate its systems for complying with the workplace health and safety legislation, ensuring the safety of workers provided to host organisations. The business must be able to demonstrate that it has the necessary capital requirements to meet any liabilities that might be induced as a result of its operations. The business must demonstrate compliance with federal migration laws.
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