Research shows Australians support companies having the option to use labour hire when they need to and would be frustrated if their skills and experience were not recognised by their employer, Business Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott said.
“As global economic headwinds gather, Australia can’t afford a tranche of reforms that would deliver rigid and outdated workplace practices.
“People do not support the government’s proposal on Same Job Same Pay, research commissioned by the Business Council says.
“Seventy-seven per cent of people would feel frustrated if someone who had less experience, or didn’t work as hard, was paid the same amount as them, a strong rejection of Same Job, Same Pay.
“We welcome the delay in the legislation until September, recognising there must be a more open and detailed discussion with business and the broader community.
“Seventy-five per cent of people agree companies should be able to hire temporary labour workers to fill surge capacity, which sends a strong message to the government that this proposal would make it more difficult for employers to do so.
“If we end up with changes that aren’t grounded in serious analysis of the problem, we’ll be making a complex system even more difficult to navigate and even more stuck in old ways of working.
“As the world changes amid increased digitisation and different patterns of work, we need policies to support that.
“The government’s challenge in crafting these changes is to ensure that they don’t put a handbrake on productivity, because that’s what delivers wage growth and keeps pressure off interest rates.
“At a time of global economic uncertainty, skyrocketing inflation and a global cost of living crisis, Australia has almost full employment and wages are growing at the fastest rate in over a decade.
“We should be encouraging employers to create new jobs and deliver higher wages, not policies that would do the opposite.”
