A Shorten Labor Government will get historically low wages moving again by acting on job security.
\nLabor will legislate to allow workers the right to request permanent part-time or full-time employment after 12 months with the same employer.
\nToo many Australians are employed as casuals with no clear prospect of a permanent position and endless job insecurity.
\nToo often, long-term casual work is used as a mechanism to pay workers less, deprive them of leave, and make them easier to sack.
\nIn Australia, 2.6 million workers are considered casual \u2013 that\u2019s one in four workers who are not entitled to paid leave. More than half of them have been with their employer for more than 12 months (59 per cent) and 192,000 workers have been with their current employer for more than 10 years.
\nWhile some people like the flexibility that casual work provides, for others it has become a constant worry: never knowing what it\u2019s like to have a paid sick day or paid holiday.
\nFor these workers it\u2019s tough to pay the rent or the mortgage and the bills, let alone make longer-term decisions like taking out a car loan or buying their own home.
\nThat is why we will give long-term casuals the right to request permanent part-time or full-time employment after 12 months.
\nLabor will also provide workers with a right to challenge an employer who unreasonably refuses such a request.
\nCurrently, there is no obligation for an employer to convert a worker to a permanent arrangement, and the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has failed to act, denying there is a problem.
\nLabor\u2019s policy builds on a recent decision of the Fair Work Commission, which provides a right for casual employees on modern awards to request to convert to part-time or full-time employment if they have worked a regular pattern of hours on an ongoing basis in the previous 12 months.
\nLabor has previously committed to clearly define \u201ccasual\u201d work \u2013 so employers and workers know with certainty whether a worker is really a \u201ccasual\u201d.
\nLabor\u2019s policy on casuals will help to get wages moving again, together with Labor\u2019s plans to:<\/p>\n
This is in stark contrast to Scott Morrison and the Liberals and Nationals, who will say and do anything to try and win votes, including claiming they support workers. A Shorten Labor Government will get historically low wages moving again by acting on job security. Labor will legislate to allow workers the right to request permanent part-time or full-time employment after 12 months with the same employer. Too many Australians are employed as casuals with no clear prospect of a permanent position and endless … Continue reading “BETTER PROTECTIONS FOR CASUAL WORKERS”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMatt Canavan<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0George Christensen<\/a>, both Queensland Nationals, have posted false claims on Facebook that the Government has sought to legislate to provide casual workers with a right to convert to permanent employment. Neither claim is true.
\nFor over five years, this government has denied there is a problem with casualisation and precarious work. Their only plan is to cut penalty rates and keep wages low. The Finance Minister recently claimed keeping wages low is a \u201cdeliberate design feature\u201d.
\nThis election is a choice between Labor\u2019s plans to get wages moving again, and the Liberals\u2019 plans to cut penalty rates and deliver bigger tax loopholes for the top end of town.
\nAfter six years of Liberal cuts and chaos, our united Labor team is ready to deliver a fair go for all Australians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"