Home | Member Updates | Closing Loopholes Bill: Government and Senate agree to split the bill
In a significant development today, cross bench members of the Senate and the Government reached agreement to split the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023 (Bill) to create a second Bill: Closing Loopholes No. 2 Bill (No 2 Bill).
Parts of the original Bill passed by the Senate today include:
- Labour hire
- Strengthening protections against discrimination (re Family and Domestic Violence)
- Workplace delegates' rights (NB some provisions have been placed in the No.2 Bill)
- Wage theft
The second Bill to be considered by the Senate early next year includes the following parts:
- Casual employment
- Transition from multi-enterprise agreements
- Model terms
- Intractable bargaining workplace determinations
- Sham arrangements
- Exemption certificates for suspected underpayment
- Penalties for civil remedy provisions
- Compliance notice measures
- Definition of employment
The schedule of amendments made by the Senate to the Bill is available here: ParlInfo - Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023 (aph.gov.au).
Next steps
The Senate Select Committee is due to hand down its Inquiry Report in early February 2024, focusing on the matters now moved to the No2 Bill.
Members will note that AHEIA raised a number of concerns with respect to the casual provisions of the original Bill as well as the proposed test in transitioning from muti-enterprise agreements back to single EAs in its submission to the Senate. However, as the Intractable Bargaining provisions were not a part of the original Bill, AHEIA has subsequently made representations to cross bench Senators outlining our concerns (see today’s earlier member update 7/12/2023).
Our preliminary assessment is that the splitting of the Bill is for noting only at this time, and that at the time of this update there is no immediate impact on University obligations.
AHEIA will continue to provide further updates on developments as they come to hand, including at our final Sector Check-In for the year on Friday, 15 December at 2pm (AEDT).