Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Responsibility) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move opposition amendments (31) and (32) together.

(31)  Schedule 1, page 36 (after line 3), after item 22, insert:

22A At the end of section 613

Add:

        (2)    Notwithstanding the other factors set out in this section or a provision in a workplace agreement or an award, an employee who wishes to attend religious activities on Good Friday must be taken to have reasonable grounds for refusing a request to work on Good Friday.

(32)  Schedule 1, page 36 (after line 3), after item 22, insert:

22B At the end of section 613

Add:

        (3)    Notwithstanding the other factors set out in this section or a provision in a workplace agreement or an award, an employee who wishes to attend religious activities on Christmas Day must be taken to have reasonable grounds for refusing a request to work on Christmas Day.

These amendments deal with the issue of protection for public holidays. Labor believes that Australian employees are entitled to real protection for public holidays. The government’s test is supposed to provide protection from the loss of certain protected award conditions such as public holiday pay, but, as I said, Labor believes in real protection for working Australians, including for the time that they are entitled to not be at work or to entitlements if they choose to be at work.

The government’s Work Choices act states, on the one hand, that employees are entitled to a day off on public holidays but, in the very next section, it states that an employer may request an employee work on a public holiday. The legislation does indicate in section 612(3) that an employee can refuse a request where they have reasonable grounds to do so. It would be interesting to know how many Australian employees are actually aware that this provision exists in the legislation, let alone how to wade through the factors and debate with their employer as to whether their excuse is reasonable. We are proposing amendments to ensure that, when Australian workers are asked by their employer to work on public holidays, it is clear in which circumstances an employee has reasonable grounds for refusing.

On page 4 of sheet No. 5295 revised, amendment 31 states as follows:

Notwithstanding the other factors set out in this section or a provision in a workplace agreement or an award, an employee who wishes to attend religious activities on Good Friday must be taken to have reasonable grounds for refusing a request to work on Good Friday.

A similar provision is sought to be inserted by amendment 32 in relation to Christmas Day:

Notwithstanding the other factors set out in this section or a provision in a workplace agreement or an award, an employee who wishes to attend religious activities on Christmas Day must be taken to have reasonable grounds for refusing a request to work on Christmas Day.

These are important matters. One of the things that Labor has consistently said in relation to the Work Choices debate over the last 18 months or so is that the provisions of industrial relations legislation such as was rammed through the Senate do not only go to the technical aspects of people’s conditions of employment and they do not only go to the detail of what can or cannot be included in agreements. Those matters are important, but the legislation in fact goes to a great deal more than that. I note that tonight the minister made a joke about Labor requiring greater protections in an employment contract than in a hire-purchase arrangement—well, we do, and we make no apology for that.