IEU backs federal workplace reforms

IEU General Secretary David Brear has welcomed further improvements to workplace laws after the Senate passed the Closing Loopholes Bill #2.

The legislation, designed to restore fairness and create a level playing field for employees, amount to the biggest changes to workplace laws in 25 years.

“These improvements are the result of years off campaigning by union members,” David said. “Change like this isn’t just handed over. It takes a huge effort to get laws which provide working people with fair wages, secure jobs and better working conditions.”

IEU General Secretary David Brear.

IEU members played a central role in advocating for these changes, sharing their powerful stories with politicians, participating in Senate hearings and engaging with the media to highlight necessary reforms in schools, pre-schools and kindergartens.

Tasmanian Rep Abbey Butler, now one of the newest additions to the IEU Victoria Tasmania staff (see page 4 of the Term 1 edition of The Point), made a submission about the importance of Reps/delegates to workplace rights. Those rights are now about to be enshrined in law.

The new workplace laws: a summary

(thanks to Monica Crouch, IEU NSW/ACT)

Closing Loopholes #2: Right to disconnect

Check out the IEU’s advice for members on right to disconnect laws on page 6 of the Term 1 edition of The Point.

Passed in February 2024, the latest round of reforms delivers important gains for workers across many industries: a new ‘right to disconnect’ rule is especially relevant to school staff who are drowning under unrelenting workloads.

While there is still much to be done to address workload pressures in schools, a ‘right to disconnect’ will help overworked school staff by providing a right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to employer or work-related contact after hours or on weekends.

Employer requests, parental queries and student contact often encroach on the personal time of staff. The growth of mobile technology and assumed 24/7 connectivity have only made this worse. But principals aren’t permanently ‘on call’. They need valuable downtime. 

The right to refuse work-related contact outside normal hours builds on similar protections won by IEU members in Western Australia and Queensland through collective bargaining in 2023.  

School communities – including employers, parents and students – will need to come together to ensure a clear understanding and compliance with these important new parameters.

According to a 2022 report by the Centre for Future Work, 71% of workers surveyed had “worked outside their scheduled work hours often due to overwork or pressure from managers”.

“This led to increased tiredness, stress or anxiety for about one-third of workers surveyed, disrupted relationships and personal lives for more than one-quarter, and lower job motivation and satisfaction for around one-fifth.”

Anastasia Shuraeva/Pexels

Closing Loopholes #1: Stronger rights for union reps

The Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023, passed in December 2023, includes changes that grant stronger rights for union representatives in the workplace (called delegates under the legislation).

These changes include access to paid training during normal working hours as well as reasonable access to communications with members and potential members. This can mean sending emails about union matters to staff lists that include non-members, and inviting non-members to attend union meetings.

The new laws prevent employers from unreasonably refusing to deal with union reps, from misleading them and from hindering, obstructing or preventing the exercise of their rights under the Fair Work Act.

From July 2024 new enterprise agreements and all modern awards will be required to have specific clauses on delegates’ rights.

Along with delegates rights, this new legislation also included criminalisation of intentional wage theft and increased civil penalties for inadvertent wage theft and superannuation theft.

Tranche 1: Secure jobs, better pay

The first round of workload changes was an early Christmas gift in December 2022. The Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Act 2022 means:

• more options for multi-employer bargaining to get wages moving (this is important for IEU members in the early childhood education and care sector)

• limits on the use of fixed-term contracts and the promotion of secure jobs

• long-overdue action on pay equity and measures to reduce the gender pay gap and prohibiting pay secrecy, and

• a stronger independent umpire to help resolve long-running disputes and enforce genuine, good faith bargaining.