The Senate Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Workplace Relations (Restoring Family Work Balance) Amendment Bill 2007 June 2007 © Commonwealth of Australia 2007 ISBN 978-0-642-71816-7 This document was produced by the Senate Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations and Education and printed by the Senate Printing Unit, Department of the Senate, Parliament House, Canberra. Members of the Committee Members Senator Judith Troeth LP, Victoria Chairman Senator Gavin Marshall ALP, Victoria Deputy Chair Senator Guy Barnett LP, Tasmania Senator Simon Birmingham LP, South Australia Senator George Campbell ALP, New South Wales Senator Ross Lightfoot LP, Western Australia Senator Anne McEwen ALP, South Australia Senator Andrew Murray AD, Western Australia Senators participating in this inquiry Senator Steve Fielding FFP, Victoria Senator Rachel Siewert AG, Western Australia Secretariat Mr John Carter, Secretary Dr Greg Spelman, Principal Research Officer Ms Candice Lester, Executive Assistant Senate Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Committee Department of the Senate PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Australia Phone: 02 6277 3520 Fax: 02 6277 5706 Email: [email protected] Internet: www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/eet_ctte/index.htm Table of Contents Members of the Committee.............................................................................. iii Acronyms .......................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1 .............................................................................................................1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 Background.............................................................................................................1 Purpose of the bill...................................................................................................1 Submissions............................................................................................................1 Acknowledgement..................................................................................................2 Chapter 2 .............................................................................................................3 Government Senators' Report.................................................................................3 The workplace relations system and the family-work balance ..............................3 Views in the submissions .......................................................................................4 Conclusion..............................................................................................................8 Chapter 3 ...........................................................................................................11 Opposition Senators' Report .................................................................................11 The family work balance......................................................................................11 Effects of the provisions of the bill ......................................................................12 Conclusion............................................................................................................12 Chapter 4 ...........................................................................................................15 Family First Dissenting Report .............................................................................15 Appendix 1 List of submissions .......................................................................19 Appendix 2 Hearing and witnesses..................................................................21 Acronyms ACCI Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry ACTU Australian Council of Trade Unions Ai Group Australian Industry Group AMWA Australian Manufacturing Workers Union AWA Australian Workplace Agreement CPSU Community & Public Sector Union NFF National Farmers Federation QCU Queensland Council of Unions SDA The Shop Distributive & Allied Employees' Association Chapter 1 Introduction Background 1.1 On 29 March 2007, Senator Steve Fielding, leader of the Family First Party, introduced the Workplace Relations (Restoring Family Work Balance) Amendment Bill 2007 into the Senate. On 10 May 2007, the Senate referred the bill to the Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Committee for inquiry and report by 14 June 2007. The committee dealt with this private bill concurrently with its inquiry into the provisions of the Workplace Relations Amendment (A Stronger Safety Net) Bill 2007. Purpose of the bill 1.2 The purpose of the bill is to amend the Workplace Relations Act 1996 to restore to Australian workers their public holidays, meal breaks, penalty rates and overtime and to protect their redundancy entitlements. It seeks to achieve this by ensuring Australian workers are guaranteed a paid full day off in lieu paid at not less than a rate of time and one half for working on a public holiday; a meal break after five hours of continuous work; remuneration at not less than a rate of time and one half for working more time than their maximum ordinary hours of work; the preservation of existing redundancy entitlements; and a clear definition of ordinary hours of work. Submissions 1.3 The committee advertised the inquiry in The Australian newspaper on 16 May 2007, inviting submissions by 4 June 2007. Details of the inquiry, the bill and associated documents were available on the committee's website. The committee also directly contacted the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations as well as various employer groups, industry organisations, unions, stakeholders, commentators and academics to invite submissions to the inquiry. 1.4 The committee received 11 submissions, which are listed at Appendix 1. The committee held a public hearing in Canberra on 8 June 2007. However, there were few references made to this bill during the hearing with the focus remaining on the Workplace Relations Amendment (A Stronger Safety Net) Bill 2007. The list of witnesses that appeared at the hearing is at Appendix 2 and copies of the Hansard transcript are available through links at http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/index.htm. 2 Acknowledgement 1.5 The committee thanks those organisations and individuals who made submissions, gave evidence at the public hearing and otherwise assisted with the inquiry. Chapter 2 Government Senators' Report 2.1 Many of the submitters to the inquiry supported the principles underlying the bill, but for various reasons they considered that the provisions were unlikely to meet the stated objectives of the bill. Many submissions raised concerns about the technical drafting of some of the provisions that would disadvantage employers and/or employees. Employee organisations generally argued that the provisions did not go sufficiently far to restore improvements to the family-work balance for workers. It was also noted that the bill did not effectively amend the Workplace Relations Act to remove provisions, which permitted the exclusion of the provisions of the bill in workplace agreements. Employer groups generally argued that the changes would remove the flexibility necessary to allow family and work obligations to be balanced, impose additional costs and administrative burdens on business, and would not accommodate different industry and employer requirements. 2.2 The committee majority concurs with these criticisms of the bill. The workplace relations system and the family-work balance 2.3 The family-work balance in workplace agreements has been increasingly important because of the changes inherent in modern work patterns. Increasingly, more households have become either single parent/earner or dual income households, necessitating increased flexibility in the way people are employed. 2.4 The intention of the bill is to restore conditions necessary to enable employees to balance work and family obligations. However, the committee majority considers that such provisions are unnecessary as the primary purpose of the Government's reforms to the workplace relations system has been to enable employers and employees to negotiate a better balance of work and family life. This bill aims at returning workplace arrangements to the former system where there was little or no provision for individual needs, nor the flexibility to negotiate hours of work to accommodate family responsibilities. Standardisation of conditions cannot be made to suit the diverse family responsibilities of millions of employees or the operational requirements of varied businesses. 2.5 As a result of the Government's workplace relations reforms and the increased flexibility it has delivered, fewer people are working unsocial and excessive hours. The number of people working 50 hours or more each week—the most widely used indicator of long hours—during 2006 was 17 per cent. This is a substantial reduction from the levels of 2000 when this constituted 22 per cent of the workforce. Further, most of those working more than 50 hours per week are professionals with high job 4 satisfaction or self-employed.1 The enhanced flexibility of Work Choices has facilitated their capacity to exercise choice, enhance their own productivity and that of the business that employs them. The Government's championing of workplace flexibility encourages payment of a higher standard hourly rate