LABOR AND the Democrats have both indicated they will block legislation to overturn the recent Australian Industrial Relation Commission decision to remove the redundancy exemption on small businesses
LABOR AND the Democrats have both indicated they will block legislation to overturn the recent Australian Industrial Relation Commission (AIRC) decision to remove the redundancy exemption on small businesses.
Craig Emerson, Shadow Minister for Workplace Relations, said the move by the Howard Government to reverse the AIRC’s decision was a political move and inappropriate.
“It’s an un-Australian approach to say, ‘The umpire has made the decision, I don’t like the decision of the umpire, I’m going to biff the umpire and change the rules of the game.”
He said the AIRC’s decision already allows for small businesses who can’t afford to pay redundancy entitlements to make their case to the commission.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said small business employees deserve severance pay when they lose their job because they face an average of five months unemployment.
“The Prime Minister is ignoring the facts that the Australian Industrial Relations Commission took into account when deciding all employees should receive severance pay,” she said.
The Commission capped the severance pay entitlement for small business employees at half the level for larger businesses – eight weeks redundancy pay as opposed to sixteen weeks.
However Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Kevin Andrews said that the previous exemption for small business had been in place for twenty years and its removal will threaten jobs in the small business sector.
“The decision imposes the same payout obligations for small and big business employers when workers have up to five years service with their employer,” he said.
He added that the Queensland State industrial commission ruled that the small business exemption needed to be retained because its removal could cause small business insolvencies.
Peter Hendy, chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the Federal Government’s move was in the national interest.
“Unless the exemption is retained, Australia’s small businesses would be required to find about $190 million more each year in redundancy payments – on top of unfair dismissal laws and termination pay.”
He said that while decisions of industrial tribunals must be respected, governments are ultimately responsible for economic management and the national interest.
