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

by leave—I move Australian Greens amendments (11) to (13) on sheet 5746:

(11)  Clause 119, page 121 (line 2), omit “The”, substitute “Subject to subsection (3), the”.

(12) Clause 119, page 121 (before line 7), at the end of the clause, add:

        (3)    If, immediately before the time of the termination, or at the time when the person was given notice of the termination as described in subsection 117(1) (whichever happened first), the employer is a small business employer, the amount of the redundancy pay equals the total amount payable to the employee for the redundancy pay period worked out using the following table at the employee’s base rate of pay for his or her ordinary hours of work:

(13)  Clause 121, page 122 (line 11), omit paragraph (b).

These amendments relate to the issue of redundancy payments. The bill continues the Work Choices provision denying employees of small businesses redundancy pay. This comes after a 2004 Australian Industrial Relations Commission decision extending redundancy pay to small businesses. The full bench of the AIRC said in that decision:

Having considered all of the material and submissions with respect to the issue we have concluded that we should partially remove the small business exemption from severance pay. As a general proposition the employees of small businesses are entitled to some level of severance pay. The evidence establishes that the nature and extent of losses suffered by small business employees upon being made redundant is broadly the same as suffered by persons employed by medium and larger businesses.

It is also clear that the level of the exemption is to some extent arbitrary and can give rise to inequities in circumstances where a business reduces employment levels over time. While some small businesses lack financial resilience and have less ability to bear the costs of severance pay than larger businesses, the available evidence does not support the general proposition that small businesses do not have the capacity to pay severance pay.

Access to redundancy pay is even more important now for employees as we enter these very difficult economic times. Without redundancy pay, more workers will end up relying on the state to survive. We note the bill continues the ability of employers to apply to FWA to reduce redundancy pay, including down to nothing, if they can demonstrate an incapacity to pay. We do not see why employees of small businesses that have the capacity to pay should be denied this right.

I also note comments by the Deputy Prime Minister during question time yesterday, when she was having a go at the opposition, on expanding the definition of small business and how that would lead to employees losing redundancy pay. She said:

Let every Australian worker, particularly those who work for small businesses, understand that … the Leader of the Opposition and his Liberal Party have drafted an amendment and committed themselves to supporting an amendment that rips redundancy pay off hardworking employees.

But that is exactly what the Fair Work Bill does by extending the Work Choices exemption for small businesses on redundancy pay. The ALP is not returning to the position before Work Choices and giving small business employees redundancy pay. This is what in fact our amendment does. You can argue as long as you want and all you want about where the line is drawn, but this government is still drawing a line denying hardworking and long-serving employees redundancy pay. However, a few short years ago, before Work Choices, these employees would have been entitled to it. We believe this is also an example of the consequences of putting minimum conditions in legislation and thus in the hands of us politicians. Given the decision of the AIRC that there was no evidence to support the proposition that small businesses could not afford to pay a lower standard of redundancy pay, to now take that right away is a political decision, not one based on the evidence. It is a decision that will have severe ramifications for the many employees of small businesses in the next few years.

We believe that our amendments are very significant and replicate the AIRC decision in extending a more limited right to redundancy pay to employees of small businesses. We commend these amendments to the chamber. We think they are important amendments. I cannot understand why the ALP has not, particularly after the strong words of the Deputy Prime Minister, who is in fact the minister for industrial relations, moved further on redundancy pay. It is clearly not fair to workers in small businesses and the Greens believe that these amendments are much more appropriate for a fairer industrial relations system in this country.