Key Points
- It could soon be difficult for your boss to prevent you working flexibly.
- New workplace laws have bee described as 'seismic' and are causing controversy.
- They are aimed at creating greater equality between men and women workers.
New laws aimed at improving working conditions - including making it harder for employers to reject requests for more flexible working hours - are causing controversy.
Employment Minister Tony Burke said the Secure Jobs, Better Pay bill, which was introduced into parliament on Thursday, was aimed at improving conditions for those in low-paid and female-dominated industries in particular.
The changes have already drawn criticism from employer groups that describe the changes as "seismic" and are particularly concerned it would force multiple employers to bargain against their wishes, increase strikes and lead to higher unemployment.
Employment expert Associate Professor Chris Wright from the University of Sydney said the laws were aimed at creating greater equality between men and women workers.
He said workers in the hospitality sector would benefit enormously, as well as those in areas such as retail, horticulture and the office-based private sector.
"These are industries where workers currently have major challenges to being able to negotiate with their employers," he said.
So what's in the laws? Here are some of the main changes.
Hospitality workers are expected to benefit from new workplace laws. Source: AAP / Bianca De Marchi
Pay secrecy
Employers will no longer be able to put a clause in contracts that prohibits workers from discussing their pay.
Professor Wright said research had shown that secrecy does not benefit employees.
"The more transparent pay arrangements are, the fairer they are, and that's good for workers generally, and it's good for women workers in particular, who are likely to be paid less."
He said workers not covered by enterprise agreements were more likely to have secrecy clauses in their contracts, including many female-dominated industries, hospitality, and private sector office-based jobs.
Flexible working arrangements
Under current laws, workers can ask for more flexible working conditions, including changing their hours, but if this is denied, there is no way to challenge this.
The new laws will allow workers to take the issue to the Fair Work Commission to review.
The more transparent pay arrangements are, the fairer they areAssociate Professor Chris Wright
Mr Burke said women, in particular, were often forced to drop out of the workforce or to take lower-paid or less secure employment in order to manage caring and work commitments.
"This plays a major role in widening the gender pay gap," he told parliament. "We want families to have better access to flexible work, so they can better share and manage their caring responsibilities."
Allowing more workers to bargain collectively
This is probably the most controversial change and would make it easier for more workers to negotiate collective bargaining agreements, such as an enterprise bargaining agreement, with their employers.
This would allow workers in a certain sector, such as childcare, to get together and negotiate a deal that would apply across a number of employers.
"Multi-employer bargaining is already contemplated by the act through three streams—single interest, multi-employer and low paid," Mr Burke said. "The problem is it isn't working."
Professor Wright said there had been a decline in the coverage of enterprise agreements in recent years and this had particularly impacted women.
Employment Minister Tony Burke says current workplace laws aren't working. Source: AAP / LUKAS COCH
"This pattern style, industry-wide bargaining will increase strike action," Ms Ley told reporters on Thursday.
"What this is, is this government taking the industrial relations system back to the 1970s and not having at its centre productivity in the workplace or a focus on increasing jobs, and security for both employees and employers," she said.
Crackdown on fixed-term contracts
The bill will limit the use of fixed-term contracts so workers employed on contracts that only last for a year or two years, for example, don't have to keep renewing them.
Employers will only be able to use a fixed-term contract for the same role for a maximum of two years or two consecutive contracts, whichever is shorter.
"More than half of all employees engaged on fixed-term contracts are women," Mr Burke said. "And more than 40 per cent of fixed-term employees have been with their employer for two or more years."
Gender equity and sexual harassment
The bill also introduces a number of provisions aimed at gender equity and prohibiting sexual harassment.
Gender equity will be embedded as a central goal of the Fair Work Act, which means the Fair Work Commission will need to take this into account when doing things like setting the minimum wage, considering changes to awards and other decisions.
A new Pay Equity Expert Panel and a Care and Community Sector Expert Panel will be established to help set appropriate pay rates and to remove the need for female-dominated industries to compare their pay rates with an equivalent male wage.
The bill will also introduce an explicit prohibition on sexual harassment under the Fair Work Act. The Fair Work Commission will also be allowed to deal with all complaints, whether the harassment occurred in the past or is ongoing, or both.
The new laws will also prohibit sexual harassment. Source: AAP
Why are the changes so controversial?
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has raised concerns about the changes and said it would drag multiple employers to bargain against their wishes.
"Businesses will be forced to adopt one-size-fits-all terms and conditions, which may be unaffordable and ill-suited to the needs of their workplaces. This is not 'opt-in'," chamber chief executive Andrew McKellar said.
He said there were not adequate safeguards to ensure businesses with limited similarities wouldn't be compelled to bargain together.
There was also concern that new rules protecting strike action, especially for an expanded ‘single-interest' bargaining stream, would expose some businesses to sector-wide strike action.
Mr Burke has said the strike rights were not new, but employers argue the broadening of rules to include characteristics like shared geography means the 'single-interest' stream could now cover almost any sector. Previously the stream was voluntary and limited to certain businesses, such as franchisees of McDonald's.
Andrew McKellar (second from right) at a press conference on Friday to express concerns about the new workplace laws. Also in attendance (from left to right) were: Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable, Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott and Australian Industry Group Chief Executive Innes Willox. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
"To be clear, there is no serious or significant employer support for these proposals," Mr Willox said in a statement.
"This does nothing for productivity or growth. It would only threaten our decades of national prosperity which have been underpinned by a focus on supporting bargaining at our small and large enterprises."
Mr Burke has indicated the government is willing to consider some of the business concerns.
"We want to make sure, for example, if you have an individual workplace where the employer doesn’t want to be part of a multi agreement, and the workforce don’t want to be part of an agreement that they don’t somehow get included in it," he told ABC News Breakfast on Friday.
"But where we won’t shift is on the concept that we need to get wages moving. And we know to get wages moving, we need to get bargaining and agreement-making moving again."
To get wages moving we need to get bargaining and agreement-making moving againEmployment Minister Tony Burke
What does the ACTU say?
The Australian Council of Trade Unions has welcomed the new proposed laws and said the bill represented important steps towards modernising Australia's bargaining system to help people get the pay rises they deserve.
But it's concerned that restricting access to new bargaining options, including by locking many workers out, may limit its effectiveness. It also believes more needs to be done to stop wage theft.
“It is predictable that the same employers who have been able to keep wages low for a decade are opposing change," ACTU secretary Sally McManus said. “The wages crisis will not be fixed unless workers have a modern collective bargaining system that gives them the ability to win fair pay rises."
Potential benefits of protections
Professor Wright said international research and evidence indicated the policies would be good for business and the economy.
He said one of the issues why skills shortages were such a problem at the moment was because workers were leaving their jobs.
"Having a strong set of protections is going to compel employers to employ staff more securely, pay them better, and those are the things we know are going to lead to staff to stay in those jobs longer," he said.
It would also lead to productivity improvements because longer-term staff understood better how the business operates, and employers would also not have to spend time and money on hiring and training new staff.
"Workers who are secure and paid better are more likely to, in turn, invest in the business."
- with AAP
