Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has confirmed that the Federal Government is considering a ‘multifactor’ test put forward by the Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association (AREEA).
As reported by the Australian Financial Review, the ‘multifactor’ test will differentiate between firms which provide specialist services and those which offer supplemental labour.
The test could ensure major service contractors won’t be affected by the same job, same pay laws.
“A multifactor test is one of the things that we’re considering as part of ongoing constructive consultation with industry,” Burke told AFR.
The idea was presented to Burke during a delegation of contractors and senior executives from member companies led by AREEA, which recently raised concerns over the ‘same job, same pay’ bill.
The proposed test from the delegation also includes information such as whether an employer is providing only contingent labour or performing independent scopes of work, if a contractor’s employees are using the host’s equipment, if the client is directly supervising the contractor’s employees, and whether the contractor has autonomy over their work.
Mining and Energy Union general secretary Grahame Kelly told AFR that the rules should apply to labour hire workers doing the same work as permanents, and that this should include fully owned labour hire subsidiaries.
“We do not expect that same job, same pay laws would cover contractors performing genuinely specialist or short-term work,” Kelly told AFR.
“However, the laws must be designed to prevent employers misrepresenting long-term labour hire arrangements as specialist contract work.”
The mining union told AFR that it is open to the Federal Government’s ‘same job, same pay’ bill excluding legitimate service contractors, so long as it does not create further loopholes for labour hire firms to undercut workers’ pay.
Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable is currently leading a campaign against the bill, and told AFR that “a simple and effective approach is to have a clear and straightforward definition of a service contractor that would exclude them from the same job, same pay legislation”.