Amendments to the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023 - 29 November 2023

29/11/23

These amendments propose to remove some parts of the government's bill that extend the reach of union delegates in workplaces. In schedule 1 (7) the government's bill introduces a series of new rights for union delegates employed in workplaces, this includes any employee acting as a shop steward having uncapped time off for union training, making employers engage with delegates on any matter they wish to raise, even where matters are fanciful or unrepresentative of the priorities of a majority of employees on site. Allowing unions demand their delegates be given subsidised access to company intranet, office facilities, transport and meeting rooms and inserting union delegate terms into modern awards and agreements. My amendments remove these additional union powers. The case has not been made for these changes. They I have not been backed by any identified problem to be solved, or by specific difficulties experience by delegates which couldn't be addressed by working with employers or using the enterprise bargaining system. Schedule 1 (10) of the government's bill expands the circumstances in which union can come on to work sites without prior notice. Usually union officials are required to give 24 hours' notice of entry to a work site. There's already an exemption to this. If the Fair Work Commission is reasonably satisfied that giving a workplace advanced notice of entry might result in the destruction, concealment or alteration of relevant evidence. The government's bill extends this exemption if an official seeks to investigate underpayments. That is the union could enter without notice. Now, I don't want workplaces to underpay employees. And I don't want workplaces to destroy, conceal or alter relevant evidence. But his extension of union powers in the government's bill doesn't require the union to establish that there is any risk of the destruction of evidence or records. My proposed amendment removes this additional exemption. Making it easier for unions to enter workplaces without notice is overreach and doesn't contribute to closing any loopholes. The government is seeking to legislate for problems that do not exist. Any union wanting to enter a workplace to represent a member or attract members already has a straightforward and well understood mechanism to do so, through the entry permits held by its officials. This is another example of the government's bill extending union powers beyond what is necessary to address any problem identified. We see this extension of powers repeatedly in the bill. Even in the government's amendments, we see additional union powers to pull multiple labour hire employers at one host site into an existing same job, same pay order. I'm told by business groups that increased union powers to enter workplaces without notice and increased employer obligations to union delegates on site were not part of the exposure draft consultations. The Fair Work Commission's data on entry disputes does not reveal any problems with entry rights. This was an unexpected addition to the legislation and seems to be the government paying its dues to the union movement to support the growth of its influence and power rather than passing legislation that addresses actual problems. Unions have a part to play but that doesn't mean that extending their reach into workplaces and growing their rights is always justified. If there isn't a problem that needs fixing we should not be creating additional union powers.

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