Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move Family First amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 5310:

(1)    Clause 2, page 2 (at the end of the table), add:

(2)    Page 83 (after line 19), at the end of the bill, add:

Schedule 7—Protected allowable award matters etc.

Workplace Relations Act 1996

1  Subsection 354(4) (after paragraph (h) of the definition of protected allowable award matters)

Insert:

           (ha)    redundancy pay;

2  After subsection 513(3)

Insert:

     (3A)    To avoid doubt, the matter of redundancy pay is, and is taken to have always been, a matter covered by the following provisions:

             (a)    paragraph (1)(a);

             (b)    paragraph (1)(n).

3  After subclause 17(1) of Schedule 6

Insert:

     (1A)    To avoid doubt, the matter of redundancy pay is, and is taken to have always been, a matter covered by the following provisions:

             (a)    paragraph (1)(b);

             (b)    paragraph (1)(p).

4  Subclause 25A(4) of Schedule 8 (after paragraph (h) of the definition of protected allowable award matters)

Insert:

           (ha)    redundancy pay;

5  Subclause 52(3) of Schedule 8 (after paragraph (g) of the definition of protected allowable award matters)

Insert:

           (ga)    redundancy pay;

6  Application of amendments

The amendments made by items 1, 4 and 5 apply in relation to a workplace agreement lodged after the commencement of this item.

The evidence given by the ACTU and others to the committee inquiry into the Family First bill, the Workplace Relations (Restoring Family Work Balance) Amendment Bill 2007, was that even if Family First managed to extend the redundancy protection to five years—although it has now been cut back to two years—Work Choices does not protect retrenchment pay, because there is no guarantee that retrenchment pay will be included in an agreement. Family First is concerned about that. Workers may easily sign workplace agreements without realising that redundancy is not a protected award item—and maybe without realising the full implications of that not being a protected award item. In fact, workers and their families tend to concentrate on day-to-day issues and may assume that they will be entitled to redundancy payments as a matter of course. So Family First moves this second group of amendments as a way of tightening up the issue of redundancy for workers and making it part of a protected award condition.