Page 1751 - Week 06 - Thursday, 30 July 2020
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government to look into how to further extend portable long service leave benefits to another dynamic employment sector in the ACT—hairdressing.
Portable long service leave is an excellent scheme. We are proud of the work that has been done in the Assembly, over a number of terms now, to provide long service leave benefits to an increasing number of employees, including commitments by my colleagues Amanda Bresnan and Meredith Hunter in the Seventh Assembly. The scheme seems to be working well for the industries already covered, so we believe that it makes sense to consider extending it to other sectors.
Portable long service leave is intended to protect the entitlements of workers who work in industries that are characterised by higher levels of mobility and brief employment. We take on Ms Cody’s comments that employees working in hairdressing may often move between salons and employers but remain in the same sector for their entire careers. They, like the employees already covered by the scheme, deserve access to paid leave and entitlements.
The view held by some that long service leave is painful to industry and a burden on employment is antiquated and fails to recognise that workers need rest and balance in their lives. Long service leave helps provide that. It contributes to worker health and safety and it helps build a better and fairer society. The evidence is also clear that treating workers well, and giving them proper breaks and leave, improves productivity. As I have raised before in this place, there is a question about whether it is time for Australia’s long service leave provisions to go through a more fundamental, modernising transformation. All long service leave could, in fact, be portable, recognising that, in the modern age, people change employers and industries fairly frequently. Today’s working environment is just not the same as in the days when someone might be a company employee for life.
The Australian Senate, through the inquiry into the feasibility of, and options for, creating a national long service standard, and the portability of long service and other entitlements—and that is quite a title for a committee inquiry!—has looked into the issue. The report highlighted the value of states, territories and the commonwealth reviewing the long service leave systems in Australia and considering the development of a nationally consistent scheme.
In recognition of the ongoing changes to the ACT workforce across sectors, I welcome that Ms Cody’s motion looks into how we could broaden this scheme even further in the ACT. I recognise that extending this outside of select industries would require significant work and consultation. The approach that has been taken so far to pick certain industries and add them individually makes sense from a practical perspective; however, given the long success of the scheme in the ACT, the time has come to broaden it to other sectors.
All our workforces are becoming more fluid and flexible, and this is an opportunity to share the benefits of long service leave to all employees in the ACT, not just those in individually championed industries. I recognise that an extension of this scope will take time and so it is appropriate to ask the government to investigate the options for
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