Contractors become new IR battleground : Melbourne Indymedia

Contractors become new IR battleground
August 17, 2006 - 12:54PM

Independent contractors have become the latest industrial relations battleground, with Labor saying a government measure is a further attack on the living standards of Australian workers.

Labor's industrial relations spokesman Stephen Smith said the Independent Contractors Bill would remove workers' rights, entitlements and conditions.

The bill, which follows the government's contentious overhaul of workplace relations, makes it easier for a range of employees be reclassified as independent contractors.

Mr Smith said the bill allowed many employees to be treated as independent contractors.

This would mean they would lose employee protections while placing the burden of being responsible for their superannuation, tax and workers' compensation on them.

"It will allow people to be pushed out of an employee relationship," Mr Smith said.

"It is a further attack on their rights, protection, entitlements and living standards generally."

The government's message to vulnerable employees and dependent contractors who were in an unequal bargaining position was: "You are on your own."

Mr Smith said the bill would also override New South Wales and Victorian law that deemed a wide range of workers, particularly tradespeople, as employees even though they would have been regarded as independent contractors under common law.

The bill did exempt owner-drivers from the overriding provisions, subject to a review next year.

Mr Smith said the government was providing no significant protection for textile outworkers and significantly weakening their entitlements.

The bill also introduced even more complexity and confusion into Australia's workplace laws, he said.

Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey used the debate to urge the government to go further on the legislation, which presently excludes owner-drivers in some states.

Mr Tuckey, a former owner-driver, said a two year sunset clause should be inserted into the bill so the exemptions, which "deeply concerned" him, would expire later.

"Independent contracting is all about initiative and hard work," he said.

"Owner drivers need to be able to make their own judgement as to the price they charge.

"I cannot see how we benefit owner drivers by this proposal."

Mr Tuckey said Labor's argument implied all Australians working as independent contractors were "too dopey" to make their own decisions without having a union hold their hand.

But Labor MP Jennie George, a former ACTU president, said the bill continued the government's attacks on the rights of workers.

She said some employers were guilty of creating "sham" arrangements in which workers who should be treated as employees were considered contractors and forced to take responsibility for regulations such as occupational health and safety and public liability insurance.

In some cases these sham arrangements were foisted on workers as young as 15, she said.

Ms George said up to 41 per cent of contractors were dependent contractors, which meant they worked for just one employee and were almost indistinguishable from traditional employees.

"The distinction between contractors and employees is increasingly blurred," she said.

"In sham arrangements, the worker is often unaware this contracting relationship transfers responsibility from the employee to the worker."

"The bill fails to recognise these sham arrangements."

Liberal backbencher Stuart Henry said the bill enshrined the right to work under conditions of individual choice, rather than those set by unions or government.

"It will encourage entrepreneurship and self-reliance," Mr Henry said.

He said Labor was not interested in freedom or choice.

"It is committed to the power, wealth and prestige of trade unions," he said.

Labor's Bernie Ripoll said the bill was about roping in those workers who were not directly impacted by WorkChoices, the government principal industrial relations change.

"It is just part of the government's full suite of extreme industrial relations law," he said.

Mr Ripoll said the bill would give more power to the big end of town, which would push workers out of the normal employer-employee relationship.

"There will be a huge range of people who are exploited," he said.

The debate continues.

© 2006 AAP