18 December 2023
Following a deal with crossbench Senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock, the Senate split the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023 (Bill) (reported on in our previous article). As a consequence, the first round of Closing Loopholes amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) was passed by both Houses of Parliament and received Royal Assent on 14 December 2023. These changes to the FW Act cover regulated labour hire, workplace delegates, criminalising wage theft and the introduction of an offence for industrial manslaughter, as well as family and domestic violence discrimination.
A second round of amendments will be considered early next year under the Closing Loopholes No.2 Bill and are likely to cover the remainder of the initial Bill, including casual employment, regulated workers, unfair contracts, enterprise bargaining, and sham contractor arrangements.
We summarise the key changes that have now been passed and proposed actions for employers in our latest information sheet.
Key changes include:
This article was written with the assistance of Alexander Rench (Seasonal Clerk).
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