“Nothing in here to celebrate”: COSBOA hits back at casual concessions in IR bill

The Albanese government’s recent concessions on industrial relations reform are nothing to cheer about, the Australian small business lobby says, arguing the proposed legislation will still level unwieldy and complex rules on SMEs.

According to the Australian Hotels Association, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Tony Burke this week agreed to alter elements of the proposed Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill focused on casual employment.

After hearing concerns from employer groups, civil penalty provisions that could level costly fines against businesses for misrepresenting casual employment will be pulled from the proposed legislation.

At the same time, the bill will be clarified to ensure that workers who want to stay casually employed can do so, irrespective of the new casual conversion mechanism contained in the Closing Loopholes plan.

While the Australian Hotels Association says the changes will make the bill fairer for casuals and their employers, it has put the organisation at odds with other employer groups, which remain steadfastly opposed to the bill and the bulk of its contents.

The concessions on civil penalty provisions and extra detail regarding casual work are no win for businesses who employ casual workers, said Council of Small Business Organisations Australia CEO Luke Achterstraat.

“From our perspective, there’s nothing in here to celebrate, because there’s no reduction of complexity,” Achterstraat told SmartCompany.

The federal government’s plan to establish a new, formal definition of casual work will still result in compliance costs for small businesses required to understand it.

“There is, perhaps, faint praise from some of the employer groups, but we remain extremely concerned about the complexity of the deal,” Achterstraat said.

“If the government is convinced there are systemic loopholes in our workplace relations system, it’s high time for a thorough review of the existing Fair Work Act was conducted, with the focus on productivity and lifting real wage growth.”

The decision to remove civil penalty provisions — which could have penalised businesses $469,500, and individuals $93,900 for misrepresenting casual work — needs to be seen to be believed, he added.

Even then, COSBOA fears businesses that misjudge their employment obligations will still face tribunal action, irrespective of civil penalties.

“There’s no silver lining at all,” Achterstraat said.

“I mean, the bill needs to be reworked in its entirety.

“COSBOA will never support any measures to create more cost and red tape burdens for small business, which is what the bill does, regardless of footnotes and annotations.”

Only a sliver of the total bill has backing from the organisation.

COSBOA supports calls to split off and pass four non-contentious elements of the bill before the Senate considers the reforms as a whole in early 2024, a move which Burke is opposed to.

In addition, the small business lobby has voiced its support for the wage theft crackdown proposed by the bill — so long as the small business protections, which will take the form of a voluntary code of conduct, offer a “right-sized” solution for small businesses.

SmartCompany has contacted Burke’s office for comment.