Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move Greens amendment (1) on sheet 5456:

(1)    Page 121 (after line 11), at the end of the bill, add:

Schedule 9—Repeal of certain provisions relating to unfair dismissal  

Workplace Relations Act 1996

1  Section 578 (definition of operational reasons)

Repeal the definition.

2  Paragraph 581(2)(b)

Repeal the paragraph.

3  Subsection 643(1)

Omit “subsections (5), (6), (8) and (10)”, substitute “subsections (5) and (6)”.

4  Subsections 643(8) and (9)

Repeal the subsections.

5  Subsections 643(10) to (12)

Repeal the subsections.

6  At the end of paragraph 645(5)(b)

Omit “or”.

7  Paragraph 645(5)(c)

Repeal the paragraph.

8  Section 649

Repeal the section.

We have had a discussion about unfair dismissal—quite a substantive discussion—so I will not go back over old ground. I would like to point out, as I briefly indicated in the previous discussion, that these amendments also relate to operational reasons. We have seen a number of high-profile cases since Work Choices came in where operational reasons have been given broad meaning, which essentially through that process gave employers wide discretion to dismiss employees, even where there were, in fact, over 100 employees. Redundancy has always been an exemption under unfair dismissal legislation, but operational reasons, as we have seen, go much further than that. We also believe it is appropriate to get rid of the provisions that deal with operational reasons. We differ slightly on that issue. This amendment, we believe, goes beyond the previous amendments that we considered in the chamber not long ago.

Question negatived.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Bill reported with amendments; report adopted.