18th Mar 2021, 12:34 PM – Senate Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia's Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2021 - Second Reading - Agree with the bill's main idea

The majority voted in favour of a motion to agree with the main idea of the bill. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read it for a second time. The bill will now be discussed in more detail.

What does this bill do

According to the bills digest:

The Bill’s proposed reforms primarily relate to casual employment, flexibility under modern awards for industries impacted by COVID-19, the making and approval of enterprise bargaining agreements, greenfield agreements for major projects and compliance and enforcement (including responding to wage theft). The Bill’s amendments can be grouped as follows:

• Schedule 1 makes amendments to insert a definition of casual employment, provide for a casual conversion process and to address issues around ‘double dipping’ with respect to casual loading
• Schedule 2 makes amendments providing that employers covered by identified modern awards can offer additional hours to part-time employees and issue flexible work directions to employees
• Schedule 3 makes amendments to the current requirements around enterprise agreements including in relation to the operation of the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT) and agreement approval processes
• Schedule 4 make amendments to allow eight year greenfields agreement for major projects
• Schedule 5 makes amendments in relation to compliance and enforcement including by introducing new penalties and criminalising certain forms of wage theft
• Schedule 6 makes amendments in relation to when the FWC [Fair Work Commission] can dismiss applications and vary or revoke its own decisions.
• Schedule 7 provides for relevant application, saving and transitional provisions with respect to other parts of the Bill.