Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 will deliver fairness and certainty for workers in the black coal mining industry and their employers.

This legislation is designed to ensure eligible workers have a clear pathway to access their hard earned long service leave entitlements quickly and in full.

This will benefit workers across the black coal mining regions including the Hunter Valley and the New South Wales North Coast, that Illawarra, Central Queensland, and Mackay and the Whitsundays.

For decades, portable long service leave has been a vital entitlement for employees in the industry, allowing them to accrue leave as they move between sites and employers. However, disputes about who is covered by the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave Funding) Scheme have meant that many eligible employees are missing out on their lawful entitlements. This issue has particularly impacted employees in mechanical and supply services.

The two recent decisions of the full Federal Court of Australia on these matters have clarified the scheme's coverage. Many employees in the black coal mining industry can now access their entitlements under the scheme and in some cases, employers may have liabilities dating back to 2010, potentially involving debts of millions of dollars in unpaid levy for long service leave.

The government is taking decisive action through this bill to resolve these legacy issues. The bill provides a practical, time limited pathway for employers to settle historical levy debts. This pathway will enable employers to pay their levy in a financially sustainable way and connect employees with their entitlements. To ensure fairness, employers that have already begun paying their debts in good faith will also be able to opt into this pathway.

The bill allows employers to set up payment arrangements for outstanding levy debts, to be paid in instalments over six years. Once an employer has paid 80 per cent of the amount owed, the remaining 20 per cent will be waived. This represents a balanced approach intended to incentivise employer participation, protecting the viability of the scheme and supporting employers with significant levy liabilities. Greater employer uptake ultimately benefits their employees who will gain access to their entitlements sooner. Importantly, the 20 per cent debt waiver has no impact on worker entitlements—eligible workers will receive the full entitlements they're owed.

Employers will need to specify the employees and periods covered under the payment arrangements. This upholds a principle that payments should be directly linked to individual workers' entitlements.

The bill builds in flexibility and support to ensure eligible employees will not miss out on their lawful long service leave entitlement. In response to stakeholder feedback, timeframes will be able to be adjusted so employers can conduct thorough checks and identify all eligible employees. Coal LSL will also engage with employers through the process to provide support with establishing their payment arrangements.

The historical nature of these issues will mean that employer records may be incomplete. To prevent this from impacting workers, the bill adopts a fair and workable approach to establishing arrangements and calculating employee entitlements. This includes allowing certain simplified calculations, as well as allowing certain reasonable assumptions to be made. Such an approach will ensure incomplete records do not stand in the way of connecting employees with their historical entitlements.

Some employers, operating in good faith, have already paid long service leave entitlements directly to employees upon cessation of employment. To ensure that employers don't pay twice, the bill provides that employers can offset eligible payments against their debt, in certain circumstances.

Alongside supporting the payment of historical debts, the bill will also strengthen the scheme's compliance mechanisms by updating penalty arrangements. The bill links the 'additional levy' rate to the Reserve Bank of Australia's cash rate plus two per cent, which ensures the 'additional levy' functions as an effective deterrent to late payments into the scheme by employers.

This bill represents a fair outcome for employers and employees.

For employees, this bill provides certainty and recognition after many had been previously excluded from the scheme. Employees who may have previously missed out will have their service recognised and be connected with their lawful entitlements.

For employers, it provides a clear and fair process to resolve debts that, in some cases, go back 15 years. The 20 per cent debt waiver and the ability to pay in instalments will assist employers in paying their debts.

In that spirit, these reforms have been developed in consultation with industry representatives, unions and the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave Funding) Corporation. Broadly, stakeholders have expressed support for these changes as necessary and proportionate to maintain confidence in the scheme. I would like to thank all those stakeholders for their constructive engagement with this issue over a number of years.

This bill is a practical and balanced response to complex legacy issues. It reflects the government's commitment to supporting employers to pay their debts and connecting their employees with their lawful entitlements. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.