Trade industry leaders have weighed in on the Closing Loopholes Bill with support and criticism for the 2023 Fair Work Legislation Amendment.

With reports that Australians are working $131 billion of unpaid overtime according to a survey by the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute, the Australia Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) says the Bill will help clamp down on significant amounts of unpaid tradie work.

“The results of this survey won’t come as a surprise to many casual and temporary workers who are putting in extra unpaid hours across the country. Casual and temporary workers are particularly vulnerable to wage theft as if they complain they risk losing their job,” ACTU secretary Sally McManus says.

“We need a far stronger deterrent. The Closing Loopholes Bill will impose higher penalties on those employers who think they can get their staff to work for free. Billions are stolen from workers every year. The bill will also better protect casual workers, giving them a pathway to more secure work for those who want it.”

The ACTU says the Closing Loopholes Bill, currently before Parliament, would make a significant contribution to addressing this crisis of unpaid work by:

• Criminalising intentional wage theft, and significantly increasing the penalties for others forms of wage theft,
• Introducing a clear and practical definition of casual work to better protect workers, and
• Providing minimum pay and conditions for digital platform workers, 55% of who report having to work unpaid hours in a recent ABS survey.

Master Builders Australia chief executive officer Denita Wawn says actions by Minister for Industrial Relations Tony Burke to dabble at the fringes of the Bill will not change the fundamental structural problems of this Bill, describing it as “complex, costly and unnecessary”.

“This Bill ultimately drives down productivity and drives up the cost of goods and services. The economy does not operate in silos, and failing to understand how supply chains work is why peak business groups remain committed to opposing this Bill,” she says.

“You can’t amend a few clauses and say concerns with the Bill are fixed when there are 300 odd pages of damaging changes that fundamentally upend how business operates. Independent contractors, self-employed Australians, subcontractors and small businesses are still in the firing line and their rights to be their own boss are at risk.”