1st Dec 2022, 4:27 PM – Senate Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022 - in Committee - Industrial action and firefighter cancer

The majority voted against a motion to keep items 584 and 667 of schedule 1 unchanged (i.e., "stand as printed"), which means those items will be removed from the bill. This vote took place in response to Government amendments (35) and (63), which moved to opposed those items.

Text of items 584 and 667

584 Subsection 443(3A)

Repeal the subsection, substitute:

(3A) For the purposes of paragraph (3)(c), the FWC:

(a) subject to paragraph (b), must specify a date that will enable the protected action ballot to be conducted as expeditiously as practicable; and

(b) must not specify a date that is earlier than 14 days after the day the order is made.

667 Subsection 7(8) (after table item 12)

Insert:

12A - Malignant mesothelioma - 15 years

Text of Government amendment

(35) Schedule 1, item 584, page 195 (lines 1 to 8), to be opposed .

[industrial action—period for protected action ballot]

(63) Schedule 1, item 667, page 266 (lines 12 to 15), to be opposed .

[firefighters—cancers]

Explanation of amendment

According to the supplementary explanatory memorandum:

This amendment [no. (35)] would remove item 584 from the Bill to restore the FWC’s discretion to determine the timetable for the conduct of protected action ballots. The requirement that the FWC specifies a date for the close of the ballot which will enable the ballot to be conducted as expeditiously as practicable remains in subsection 443(3A).

This [amendment no. 63] would remove item 667 from the Bill so that malignant mesothelioma can instead be prescribed by regulations for the purposes of subsection 7(8) of the SRC Act.