Watt rejects proposal to expand small business definition to 25 employees

The Australian government has shot down the calls of business groups who are calling for the change of the small business definition to include those with up to 25 employees.

Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt told ABC Radio National that this change would make it easier for small businesses to "unfairly sack workers."

"There is absolutely no evidence that we need to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to be able to unfairly sack workers, and that's what this change would amount to," Watt told the news outlet.

"I just don't think that's exactly what Australians want to see right now. Australians are doing it tough with cost-of-living pressures. This is the worst possible time we could be looking at introducing laws that cut people's wages and conditions."

According to the minister, the Albanese government has created nearly a million jobs since coming to office in 2022, the most jobs that any government has created in any single Parliamentary term in history.

"So, unfortunately, for some of the leading business groups calling for this, the evidence of what's going on in the economy just doesn't back up their wish list."

Small business change proposal

Australia's Fair Work Act classifies a business with less than 15 people as a small business.

However, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has been reportedly publicly lobbying to change the definition of a small business to include 25 employees in a workplace.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) slammed the request as "unfair and seriously harmful."

Sally McManus, ACTU secretary, said up to one million workers will have their unfair dismissal rights, protections from wage theft, and job security protections stripped away if ACCI's request is approved.

"If the business lobby got their way, this would act as a green light for bad bosses to return to the days when they could hire and fire when they feel like it, without having to give workers a reason for why they are working one day and gone the next," McManus said in a statement.

"The last thing any working person needs is less rights at work, less pay, and less job security. This will make cost-of-living pressures much worse. We demand all political parties rule out any reduction to workers' rights in this Federal election."