Cabinet to meet today following landmark legal case
Under industrial relations reforms under consideration by the Morrison government, employers could avoid billions of dollars in back pay that may arise from a ruling that grants regular casuals paid leave in addition to their loading, according to a report by The Australian Financial Review.
The proposal is expected to be discussed at a cabinet meeting today during a review of the government’s industrial relations omnibus bill, which will be brought to Parliament next week. The bill also includes provisions strengthening casual workers’ rights to convert to permanent after 12 months.
While its details haven’t been hammered out yet, the proposal would allow employers to use casuals’ 20% loading to help offset retrospective leave liability that arises if a court deems the casual a permanent staff member, AFR reported.
The reform addresses the Workpac v Rossato ruling earlier this year, which found that casuals who work regular and predictable hours are owed permanent entitlements including annual leave, sick leave and redundancy pay going back as far as six years, and that employers cannot use casuals’ extra loading to offset this.
Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter estimated that businesses could owe up to $39 million in back pay if the Rossato ruling was applied across the economy, AFR reported. Unions, meanwhile, have vehemently opposed any attempt to undermine the judgment, arguing that both employers and the government have exaggerated the potential consequences.
The proposal to comes as Sally McManus, secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, is set to deliver a speech today that warns that unions will judge the government’s industrial relations bill by whether workers will be worse off under it and if it tackles insecure jobs, according to AFR.
McManus will exhort governments and employers to continue the collaborative efforts begun in the COVID-19 crisis to cut the number of insecure jobs in half over the next 10 years. She will point out that almost every union increased its membership during the pandemic and that the union movement saw its “national role returned.”
“The consultation and co-operation must not only belong to the pandemic – it must become business as usual again in Australia as it makes us a better country,” she said in an advance copy of the speech.
