11/07/2023
A heads up to all small business.......be careful who u vote for
Albaneseâs War on Self-Employed Workers
The Albanese government is currently drafting a new Bill, that will allow the Fair Work Commission to create a set of âenforceable minimum standardsâ covering all âemployee-likeâ workers in Australia.
The Fair Work Commission â which is a tribunal, not a court of law â will adjudicate on whether a worker is an âemployee-likeâ worker or âindependent contractorâ.
If deemed âemployee-likeâ, a âhiringâ business will be forced to treat them the same way they treat other employees, regardless of whether they are a company, have numerous other clients, advertise their services to others, or only perform a few hours of work a month,
In countries where these laws have been introduced, small business costs have increased 20 to 30 percent, due mainly to costly audits, retroactive reimbursement orders and crippling fines for âmisclassification violationsâ.
In California, where the laws were brought in last year, community theatres across the state have closed their doors because they canât afford the cost of converting everyone involved with a production, into employees.
Of course, the ALP is framing the changes as Labor protecting âgig workersâ and âsticking itâ to Big Business companies like Uber.
Itâs a nice pitch, but highly misleading.
As the Consultation Paper makes clear, these reforms are intended to apply much more broadly than just Uber drivers. Once up and running they will capture virtually ALL self-employed workers in Australia.
Today, a large section of the countryâs workforce is made up of independent, self-employed workers of one kind or another.
Most are just ordinary Australians who, like me, made a conscious decision to sacrifice some of the so-called âbenefitsâ of being employed, for the freedom, autonomy and independence that comes with being âyour own bossâ.
They comprise the last completely decentralised part of our economy, with a workforce extending across thousands of different industries, including freelance journalists, podcasters, graphic designers, independent filmmakers, tutors, couriers, town agents, security guards, bookkeepers, cleaners, sheep shearers, truckers and tradies.
With small and medium businesses the biggest users of this workforce, it will be they - and NOT Big Business - who are the REAL targets of these reforms.
Once they realise they could be âon the hookâ for reimbursing contractors for extra back pay and back benefits from the date they were first hired, as well as extra insurance, payroll, super and work cover costs, most will simply decide itâs not worth the hassle anymore.
Which is exactly what Labor wants, of course.
Their goal is to shift Australia away from free markets altogether, towards central planning and ever-increasing levels of oversight and control.
According to Self-employed Australia, if LNP and just four other Senators vote against the bill, it wonât pass.
They are asking everyone to write to these Senators and tell them that the new laws must be opposed, âlock, stock and barrelâ!
The Albanese federal government has a plan and agenda to (effectively) outlaw your right to be your own boss, to be self-employed. It is doing this under the
