MEMBER for Mallee Anne Webster says small businesses owners face “chaos and confusion” over how to deal with a crisis when they happen outside of normal working hours.
The right to disconnect law now forbids employees being contacted after hours, with penalties including prison time for bosses who do the wrong thing.
“Mallee small business owners will need to become industrial relations lawyers – or fork out for them – to get their heads around these rushed amendments to Labor’s already bad industrial relations legislation,” Dr Webster said.
“The Albanese government did a dodgy deal with the Greens over the right to disconnect laws and then foolishly voted for the Greens amendment which contained criminal penalties, despite the ramifications for small business owners.”
Dr Webster said the laws cast doubt over how farmers, hospitality managers, construction companies and even school principals engage with staff outside regular working hours.
“Mallee business owners and managers face chaos and confusion over how to deal with crises when they occur and sometimes need to contact employees urgently, thanks to Labor’s desperate haste to pass terrible industrial relations legislation,” Dr Webster said.
“Now Labor are in a panic to pass new legislation to counter the Bill and fix the Greens’ disconnection mess. Frankly, an election cannot come soon enough to unwind the most productivity-sapping, economically destructive elements of this legislation.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has vowed to repeal the laws if the Coalition wins the next federal election.
Asked on Sky News if his party would repeal the right to disconnect if it won government, Mr Dutton responded with an emphatic: “Yes, we will.”
“If you think it’s okay to outsource your industrial relations or your economic policy to the Greens, which is what the prime minister is doing, then we are going to see a continuation of the productivity problem in our country,” Mr Dutton said.
“And as the Reserve Bank governor pointed out, if you don’t address it, you’ll see interest rates continue to climb or you’ll see them stay higher for longer.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Mr Dutton wanted Australians to work longer for less.
“That is consistent with what the Liberal Party did last time they were in government, where we saw real wages falling, where we saw no support,” he said.
“Even when they received a Royal Commission findings in the interim report saying that the wages of aged care workers needed to be lifted, they did nothing about it.
“What we’ve done is in the past two national wage cases … support increases in the minimum wage. We’ve provided a 15 per cent wage increase for aged care workers. We’ve seen real wages increase during the last two quarters.
“And we’re seeing as well, Australians being able to keep more of what they earn because of Labor’s tax cuts, which are aimed at addressing cost-of-living for low and middle income earners. Peter Dutton just wants people to work longer, for less.”
