Australia plans to reform its workplace-relations laws in a bid to remove structural impediments that stymie wage growth.
(Bloomberg) — Australia plans to reform its workplace-relations laws in a bid to remove structural impediments that stymie wage growth.
The reforms include closing a loophole that allows companies to use labor hire firms to undercut agreed minimum rates of pay, improving the rights of casual workers and preventing long-term underpayment of wages, Tony Burke, Australia’s employment minister, said on Sky News on Sunday. The changes will be introduced later this year, he said, without specifying when.
The plan forms part of an overhaul of Australia’s labor laws, which have so far allowed workers at different companies to collectively negotiate their rates of pay and improve workplace flexibility, as the nation deals with a cost-of-living crisis. Still, salaries have increased at around half the pace of inflation in the first three months of 2023, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
“What I’m implementing unashamedly is the end of low wages being a deliberate design feature for the Australian government,” Burke said of the reform program to date. “But then you’ve also got to make sure you don’t have loopholes that undercut everything you’ve just done.”
Here are some of the details on the reforms from Burke:
- To allow a casual worker who is effectively working full-time hours and wants job security to apply to become a permanent worker. Shift to permanent role will result in loss of casual leave loading and won’t result in backpay
- Government is consulting on ways to discover the underpayment of workers earlier to combat so-called wage theft. Changes won’t be to “get criminal convictions. I just want people to be paid properly and the current system hasn’t been delivering that in way too many situations”
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