Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This legislation, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Protecting Worker Entitlements) Bill 2023, is really important to me, as someone who has spent the best part of the last decade working in the labour movement with, in particular, workers who are some of the most marginalised in our community, such as those in insecure work, migrant workers, young workers and women workers. This bill will improve protections for those cohorts, so the proposed legislation before us today is really important.

What this amendment bill seeks to do is strengthen the current legal framework to provide additional protections to those workers who, unfortunately, have been left without vital protections to protect their entitlements. This proposed legislation seeks to address the key issue faced by many Australian workers, which is where companies may try to avoid paying their employees' entitlements, which can leave workers without their rightful wages, superannuation and other entitlements. In some cases, there is no legal recourse to recover them, and I've worked with many people over the past decade who've been left in dreadful situations as a result of the failure of the legal framework in this country to provide those adequate protections.

To address this issue, this bill proposes to expand the definition of 'entitlement' under the Fair Work Act 2009 to include not only wages but other employee benefits such as superannuation, redundancy pay and annual leave. This will ensure that workers are protected and have a legal right to claim these entitlements. This bill seeks to provide greater protections for Australian workers and ensure that they are treated with the respect and dignity that they deserve. This bill will make it harder for some employers to exploit workers or avoid their legal obligations and will provide greater recourse for workers who have been denied their entitlements.

This amendment bill also seeks to provide additional protections and flexibility for workers in relation to unpaid parental leave entitlements, superannuation entitlements and migrant worker rights. The bill also proposes to amend the Fair Work Act 2009 to provide greater flexibility for employees to take leave in shorter periods and to take up to 30 days of their unpaid parental leave flexibly. This will allow employees to take leave in smaller blocks, which can be particularly helpful for parents who want to gradually return to work after the birth or adoption of a child, which is just another way that we're increasing gender equality in this country.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12:04 to 12:15

This bill seeks to expand protections for all Australian workers to ensure they are treated with the respect and dignity they deserve. It will make it harder for employers to exploit workers or avoid their legal obligations, and it will provide greater recourse for workers who have been denied their entitlements. This legislation, as I mentioned earlier, will also be good for gender equity by encouraging greater access to parental leave, with flexible blocks of leave able to be taken. That is going to be particularly helpful for parents who want to gradually return to work after the birth or adoption of a child.

Importantly, this legislation provides additional rights to employees in superannuation entitlements by proposing to amend the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 to require employers to provide regular updates to their employees on their superannuation entitlements, including the details of the contributions made on their behalf. This will help to ensure that employees are aware of their superannuation entitlements and can take action if they are not receiving their rightful contribution. Superannuation is, of course, a proud Labor legacy and we will always protect it.

Significantly, this amendment also confirms that migrant workers are entitled to the benefit of the Fair Work Act regardless of their immigration status. This will ensure that all workers in Australia regardless of their visa status are protected by Australian workplace laws, including the minimum wage, leave entitlements and protections against unfair dismissal, which I think many people would agree are very commonsense amendments. Of course every worker should be covered by the Australian workplace laws. I have worked with far too many people who have been denied their entitlements, who have been too afraid to speak up because of a lack of protections and a lack of clarity in the law regarding their coverage by Australian law, so I am very pleased to see that these amendments are going to come into place. These amendments regarding migrant workers come from the recommendations of the migrant workers task force. Unfortunately, migrant worker exploitation occurrences are far too common in Australian workplaces, so it's pleasing to see these recommendations are being included in these amendments.

Ultimately, this legislation is about providing greater protections and rights for Australian workers. I do want to acknowledge all the work that has been done over many years by a range of different organisations including unions and individual workers who been speaking up about what's been happening to them, which has enabled us to make these changes that will improve their lot.

One of the key issues that the bill seeks to address is underpayment of wages, which is unfortunately a widespread problem in Australia, with many workers being paid less than the minimum wage or having their entitlements withheld. The proposed changes to the Fair Work Act 2009 will provide greater protections for workers and ensure they are able to then claim their entitlements. I've heard lots of stories, from apprentices to workers in food manufacturing, about the withholding of wages and entitlements. I'm really pleased to see this bill address those very substantial issues. This bill, by expanding the definition of an entitlement to include not only wages but also other employee benefits such as superannuation, redundancy pay and annual leave, will ensure workers are protected and have a legal right to claim these entitlements, and that they can't be denied.

In proposing to amend the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992, we do see a greater protection around super which, as I mentioned before, is something that is a proud Labor legacy. I'm also proud, even though it's not a part of this particular bill, that we have announced that we as a Labor government will be instituting our payday superannuation, which means that workers will be paid their superannuation on the day they receive their wages. We've seen the underpayment of superannuation occur because of the nature of the way payments were able to be made, particularly to insecure migrant workers and other marginalised workers. I have a substantial number of those workers in my electorate, so I'm really pleased to see that this will be more money for workers in their retirement. This bill is going to make a big difference in making sure that people's superannuation in this country is protected.

This is a really commonsense set of amendments that we're dealing with, particularly in relation to confirming that migrant workers are entitled to the benefit of the Fair Work Act, regardless of their visa status. They work in this country, and workers pay taxes. They are part of our communities. It's only right that we are able to confirm this here and hopefully alleviate a lot of the suffering and exploitation that, unfortunately, I've witnessed myself and heard stories about in the past decade that I've been working in the labour movement, in the Migrant Workers Centre at Victorian Trades Hall and at the United Workers Union. So, I'm really pleased to be able to support this legislation that's before us today. I think it will make a really big difference to the lives of many people in this country.

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