INDUSTRIAL relations reforms proposed by the Federal Government to support Australia's jobs and economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, could make it harder to hold employers to account for underpayments, Professionals Australia (PA) warns.
The union group, which includes Professional Pharmacists Australia (PPA) has raised a number of concerns about the Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia's Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2020.
In a submission to the Education and Employment Legislation Committee Inquiry, PA CEO, Jill McCabe, said the Bill would give employers the power to decide who was a casual member of staff and undermine enterprise agreements.
"Even before the pandemic, Australia's industrial relations system was not delivering fair outcomes for the nation's workers," she said.
"Historic low wage growth, systemic wage theft and institutionalised job insecurity and casualisation has made life increasingly difficult for workers and their families.
"Australia's post COVID-19 economic recovery presents a significant opportunity to tackle these longstanding problems which have undermined productivity and innovation, acted as a handbrake on economic growth and resulted in deteriorating outcomes for workers and their families.
"Industrial relations reform in a post-pandemic world must focus on delivering high quality, well-paid and secure jobs which put money back into local economies and provide the certainty workers need before they can make investment decisions like buying a first home or new car.
"The 'reforms' proposed in this Bill fail to deliver on these critical objectives."
The PA submission raised concerns that provisions included in the Bill to introduce criminal sanctions for underpayment of employees were undermined by the wording used.
Under section 2324B employers will face prosecution if they "dishonestly engage in a systematic pattern of underpayment".
However, PA said the definition of "dishonesty the Bill introduces to the Act's dictionary at Section 12 means it will be virtually impossible to convict an employer, given it must be established beyond reasonable doubt the underpayment was not only 'dishonest according to the standards of ordinary people', but 'known by the defendant to be dishonest'".
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