'We are concerned at the lack of any meaningful justification for many aspects of the bill or analysis of their impact'
The Ai Group on Tuesday slammed as "fatally flawed" the government's proposed workplace reforms as it called for the bill's reconsideration during a Senate inquiry.
During the Senate inquiry on the government's proposed Closing Loopholes Bill, Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox reiterated their association's opposition over what it described as a "misconceived and fatally flawed" legislation.
"The bill does not 'close loopholes,'" Willox said. "That is far from what the bill proposes."
"The bill would implement radical reworking of core elements of Australia's workplace relations system."
Employers' concerns
According to Willox, the bill's proposed changes to casual employment are "inconsistent" with the High Court's clarification of who is a casual employee.
It is also incompatible with the interpretation of the Fair Work Commission on casual employment.
"It will create significant and entirely unwarranted problems and deter employers from hiring casuals and deny workers the flexibility casual employment offers so many," Willox said.
The implementation of the "same job same pay" policy would also be an unfair attack on the labour hire sector, while changes to the definition of "employer" and "employee" would impose uncertainty that could put organisations at risk, according to Ai Group.
The organisation also called out the proposed regulation of contractors in the road transport sector, the introduction of further increases in civil penalties, as well as changes to delegates rights and union right of entry.
"We are concerned at the lack of any meaningful justification for many aspects of the bill or analysis of their impact," Willox said.
He further pointed out that the bill is "entirely inconsistent" with the government's recent Intergenerational Report and Employment White Paper, which are aimed at lifting productivity.
Instead, the Ai Group chief said the bill only "exacerbates" the complexity of the current workplace relations system.
"It focuses entirely on imposing new complexities, inflexibilities, and compliance burdens on employers," Willox said.
Reconsideration needed
Willox noted that the bill has gone some way in addressing the concerns employers raised during consultation.
"However, when viewed in its totality it remains a bad bill and an incoherent mess," Willox said. "The bill, as framed, needs to be fundamentally reconsidered. It has been rushed and must not be rubberstamped by the Parliament."
The Australian Senate has already moved to delay until next year the government's latest workplace reforms by setting to February 2024 the deadline for its report on the bill.
