Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The short answer to your question is that the amendments were finalised today. But, as I said in response to Senator Lambie, the amendments all relate to matters that have been in the public arena since at least the weekend, after the government negotiated an outcome with Senator David Pocock. For the benefit of the chamber I'm happy to give a short explanation of what these amendments are.

The government amendments in relation to bargaining include among the factors that the Fair Work Commission must take into account, in deciding which terms to include in a workplace determination, the significance to the employers and employees who will be covered by the workplace determination of any arrangements or benefits in a relevant enterprise agreement.

They authorise the Fair Work Commission to have regard to 'reasonably foreseeable employees', make determinations on views about whether certain working arrangements are reasonably foreseeable and amend an agreement with retrospective effect, if necessary, to address a concern that the agreement does not pass the better off overall test as part of the new reconsideration process.

The amendments provide that employers who employ fewer than 20 employees may not be added to a single-interest employer agreement or authorisation without their agreement.

They provide that the operations and business activities of common-interest employers must be reasonably comparable for the purposes of making or varying a single-interest authorisation or agreement.

They provide that for employers with 50 or more employees the onus is on the employer to establish that it is not a common-interest employer or that its operations and business activities are not reasonably comparable with the other employers.

They provide the Fair Work Commission with discretion to refuse an application by a bargaining representative of an employee to add a new employer to a single-interest employer agreement or authorisation, if the Fair Work Commission is satisfied that on the day it will approve the relevant application less than nine months have passed since the most recent nominal expiry date of an effectively bargained agreement that covered the employer and relevant employees.

They provide that the minister may make a declaration in relation to a particular industry, occupation or sector to facilitate entry into the supported bargaining stream.

They provide that work in the civil construction sector is to be considered general building and construction work, which would mean that work in that sector would not be subject to multi-enterprise bargaining.

They make clear that work in the asphalt industry is not considered to be general building and construction work.

They allow bargaining representatives to apply to the Fair Work Commission for an order permitting an employer to put a multi-enterprise agreement to a vote if satisfied that employee organisations' failure to provide their written agreement is unreasonable.

The amendments also provide for two things in relation to flexible work: firstly, they allow a pregnant employee to request a flexible working arrangement; and, secondly, they clarify the types of orders the Fair Work Commission may make when an employer has not adequately responded to a request for a flexible working arrangement.

In relation to family and domestic violence leave, the amendments insert a new part 28 into the bill, which would make technical amendments in relation to paid family and domestic violence leave to enable regulations to prescribe requirements for payslips in relation to reporting of paid family and domestic violence leave so that it could be recorded on an employee's payslip as, for example, ordinary hours or training.

In relation to the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act, the amendments omit the prescription of malignant mesothelioma from the bill so that the disease can instead be prescribed by regulations under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988.

They also amend subparagraph 7(9)(a) of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act to specify that an employee is taken to have been employed as a firefighter if firefighting duties made up a not insubstantial portion of their duties.

Finally, they introduce the ability for the Australian Capital Territory to establish an ACT firefighting advisory committee to assist in the determination of whether firefighting or related duties have made up a not insubstantial portion of the duties for ACT volunteer firefighters covered by the SRC Act.

In short, the amendments the government has now sought leave to move all flow from the negotiation that the government undertook with Senator David Pocock. Each of those amendments has certainly been made public before, and anyone following this debate would be well aware of the terms of those amendments.