ON Monday August 26 Labor’s new industrial relations laws came into effect, creating confusion across struggling Australian businesses and further suppressing our abysmal productivity levels.
Labor’s new convoluted definition of a ‘casual’ employee begins by saying someone is not a casual if they have been given a firm commitment to continuing and indefinite work.
After 12 months of shifts, casual small-business workers can now apply to become permanent workers if they no longer meet this ‘casual’ test.
In businesses employing 15 or more people, workers can convert from casual after six months’ work.
The Coalition has committed to revert to the former Coalition government’s simple definition of a casual worker.
Many businesses also now must obey a new right for employees to ignore calls or messages after hours called a ‘right to disconnect’.
Businesses with 15 or more employees – and even co-workers – now face thousands of dollars in fines for contacting an employee after hours.
The same laws come into force on August 26 2025 for small businesses.
The right to disconnect undermines flexible working arrangements and hangs on an as-yet-undefined concept of what contact is ‘reasonable’.
The lawyers will be preparing their picnic baskets but if elected as Prime Minister, Peter Dutton has pledged to repeal the Labor-Greens’ right to disconnect.
There are resources at www.smallbusinesspeak.org.au if you would like to know more.
This latest tangle of red tape comes on top of Australia’s productivity going backwards by 5.8 per cent in the last two years under Labor.
Productivity in the labour market had risen dramatically from 2019 to 22 but is now back at 2019 levels.
Almost 19,000 businesses have become insolvent since Mr Albanese became PM.
The Coalition was on a deregulation agenda in government and if returned to government we will remove the complexity and hostility of Labor’s industrial relations agenda.
We have also committed to extend the value of assets eligible for the instant asset write-off to $30,000 and make this entitlement ongoing for small businesses.
