Casual risks worry WA businesses in new IR laws

More than half of WA businesses are worried about taking on casuals under the proposed new industrial relations laws, with the change the biggest concern of any in the omnibus legislation.

But unions and the Government say giving people the right to ask to convert to permanent employment after six months of working regular hours should not deter anyone from taking on casuals.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA will present the findings of its survey of 583 businesses to a Perth hearing of the inquiry into the industrial relations bill on Friday.

It found that businesses were most worried about changes to the definition of casuals out of the five provisions they were asked about.

Overall, 74 per cent thought the changes would damage their businesses, while 18 per cent said it would have no impact.

Almost all the businesses surveyed in the agriculture, accommodation and food services sectors, along with four in five retailers, said the casuals changes would hit them most.

Asked what they might have to do to cope, 56 per cent of businesses said they would stop hiring casuals, while 36 per cent said they would cut the number of staff.

The chamber, which has 7500 members, says extrapolating these numbers to apply across all businesses in WA suggests as many as 17,900 might shed a collective 64,800 jobs.

CCIWA chief executive Chris Rodwell said businesses were right to be worried.

“The changes to casual employment will not only make employers reluctant to take on new casuals, it will also create significant red-tape headaches for those that already employ them with financial penalties that kick in for those employers if a worker is wrongly classified,” he said.

“These changes have the real potential to be a handbrake on jobs in WA.”

Currently, an employee is defined as a casual if their employment contract says so. They also have the right to ask once to convert to permanent part- or full-time after 12 months of work.

The Government wants to allow people to make the request every six months and to change the definition to say someone is a casual if there is no “firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work” when employed.

The CCIWA survey explained these changes and asserted that “the change in definition may effectively stop employers engaging casuals who regularly work the same days, even where the casual has chosen to work those days because of their own availability”.

However, the Government says there is nothing in the changes to deter casual employment and that the take-up is expected to be fairly low because most people like the higher pay that comes with a casual loading.

An impact evaluation statement tabled with the legislation estimated more than 851,000 casuals across Australia would be eligible to request permanency. It noted under existing laws, only 7 per cent of those eligible had made the request.

United Workers Union national secretary Tim Kennedy said the proposed changes were “a non-controversial, common sense approach” to the issue.

“Everyone generally agrees in society that those people who want secure, ongoing employment should have a pathway to getting that,” he said.