This year has seen much change to our industrial relations landscape and developments in Canberra today are no exception to this theme.

The Victorian Chamber has been carefully monitoring the progress of various proposed changes to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act).

What has been happening?

The Commonwealth Government has been working to implement reforms to the FW Act for some time. The most recent set of proposals is referred to as the “Closing Loopholes” legislation. This legislation has been before Parliament for a little while now and has been subjected to debate and negotiations.

What has happened today?

One of the key points for discussion has been whether to “split” the closing loopholes legislation to allow relatively less controversial aspects to pass and become law, leaving more controversial aspects for further debate in the 2024 parliamentary year.

Today, the Commonwealth Government reached a deal with crossbench senators to pass some parts of the closing loopholes legislation, leaving others for discussion in 2024.

What do I need to know?

The key changes include:

• Wage theft changes including a new offence which criminalises intentional or intentionally delayed payments and underpayment of amounts to employees. This new offence exposes employers to risk of criminal investigation for non-compliance with workplace obligations. These changes are not likely to commence until 1 January 2025.
• ‘Same job same pay’ amendments giving the Fair Work Commission the power to make new labour hire orders. These impose obligations on host businesses who engage labour hire firms and require labour hire providers to pay employees at the same full rate of pay to which they would be entitled were they directly employed by the host business. Some aspects of these changes will commence the day after the legislation receives approval from the Governor General, but others do not commence until 1 November 2024.
• Changes to Union Delegate rights including access to paid time off for union training purposes and an obligation on employers to engaged with delegates, not hinder or obstruct them in their duties or make false statements to a delegate.

There are a range of other changes and it will be important for your business to stay up to date with all amendments, as some will impact your business more than others.

What’s coming next?

There are critical proposals to be debated in 2024 and may eventually make their way into the FW Act. These include:

• Changes to the definition of casual employment
• Enhanced right of entry rights for unions
• Changes to extend FW Act protections to “employee-like” or gig economy workers.

What do I need to do and how can the Victorian Chamber help?

The good news is many of the changes do not start for some time, but your business will need to understand the changes that impact you and plan to implement measures so you are ready to comply when the changes to commence.

Our team of expert workplace relations consultants are monitoring these developments carefully and are available to help your business understand and navigate them (and any other employment or industrial relations issues in your business).

We will also be monitoring developments and will be providing further updates as needed.

If you have any questions or need any assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out to our advice line by calling 03 8662 5222.