Bill
Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Australian Workers) Bill 2016
lapsed, as at 2019-07-01.
- Sponsor
- Doug Cameron
- Portfolio
- Not recorded
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2016-03-15
- second reading — 2016-03-15
- other — 2016-04-17
- other — 2016-04-19
- other — 2016-05-09
- other — 2016-08-31
- other — 2019-07-01
Divisions
No divisions recorded. Most questions are decided on the voices; this does not establish that a bill was unopposed.
Plain-language summary
Written by a model from the explanatory memorandum; not the record, as at 2016-03-15.
The bill would create new criminal offences and higher civil penalties for employers who break workplace laws, aiming to protect vulnerable workers.
It would give courts the power to order company directors to pay unpaid wages when a company is phoenixed, and to disqualify people from managing corporations for certain workplace law breaches.
New criminal offences for using coercion or threats related to slavery-like conditions would carry a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment or 240 penalty units or both.
- The bill would make the Fair Work Act 2009 apply to all employees regardless of their migration status.
- It would require the Fair Work Ombudsman to publish a Fair Work Information Statement about employee rights and remedies for overseas workers.
- It would protect employees from adverse action for questioning whether a workplace right exists or their employment status.
- It would introduce a 'reasonable person' test for sham contracting cases.
- It would increase maximum penalties for certain breaches based on business size, management sophistication, and existing duties.
- It would introduce criminal offences for coercion or threats related to slavery-like conditions, punishable by up to two years imprisonment or 240 penalty units or both.
Vulnerable employees, temporary overseas workers, employers, company directors, and the Fair Work Ombudsman would be affected by the bill.
Sources
em
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