SUBMISSION TO THE SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON JOB SECURITY
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SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendation 1. Workers who receive instructions and clock on and off at work should be given the same workplace rights and entitlements as employees under the Fair Work Act 2009.
Recommendation 2. A national labour hire licensing scheme should be introduced that
replicates and scales up the best-practice requirements of the Queensland and Victorian state
schemes.
Recommendation 3. Gig economy workers should be protected from excessive control by platform-operator businesses through the establishment of Fair Conduct and Accountability Standards.
Recommendation 4. Business practices of keeping piece rates low to the effect of a majority of workers earning below a living wage should be regulated.
Recommendation 5. The national minimum wage should be increased to a living wage.
Recommendation 6. The federal government should provide information about workplace rights in community languages, upon issuing temporary visas with work rights, to those who are issued the visas offshore. It should also facilitate follow-up education upon arrival by funding trade unions and community legal centres to offer workplace rights workshops in community languages.
Recommendation 7. The state and federal governments should minimise the use of short�term contracts and casual employment and should not award public contracts to businesses with records of sham contracting or wage theft.
Recommendation 8. The use of casual employment should be limited to an absolute necessity. The Fair Work Act 2009 should be revised to require an employer to justify variations to a casual employee’s regular pattern of hours. Any discontinued engagement of a casual employee with the intention of avoiding offering the conversion and replacing them with another casual employee should be penalised for unfair dismissal.
Recommendation 9. Visa conditions that restrict one’s right to work should be removed. By priority, all bridging visas granted to asylum seekers should have reasonably long expiries with work rights to facilitate their employment while they wait for protection outcomes.
Recommendation 10. Workers’ access to and representation by unions should be improved by the removal of restrictions on unions’ right of entry to workplaces.