The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) has welcomed the focus on small business that have been raised in the dissenting reports in the Senate inquiry into the latest industrial relations (IR) changes proposed in the Closing the Loopholes bill.
At the same time however, COSBOA warned anew of the potential damage that additional complexity and red tape will inflict at a time small business can least afford it.
The warning comes as the government continues to pursue the proposed IR changes, which has been considered a highly complex and comprehensive overhaul of workplace laws, despite recent reports that 43 per cent of small businesses are not breaking even,
“Small businesses do not typically have in-house specialist HR support. The business owner is often the head of operations, head of marketing, head of human resources and more,” COSBOA explained in a statement. “The net result for small business is greater cost and lost productivity.”
Concerns raised in dissenting reports pertain to casuals, contractors and union right of entry. COSBOA stated that such concerns must be taken seriously by the government as it seeks to pass its remaining legislation.
COSBOA has supported calls to maintain the existing definition of casual workers and employment and to include a right to refuse casual conversion on fair and reasonable grounds, something the bill proposes to change. According to the organisation, many small businesses risk losing their right to be their own boss if the existing and workable definition of employment is replaced by an open-ended interpretive principle.
It also expressed concern about the increasing cost to small business from greater entrenchment of union entry rights into their workplaces as it pointed out that the IR bill provides the unions more power and even less regulation than employers are enduring.
COSBOA also stated that if Australia is going to have a conversation about legislating a right to disconnect that the bill seeks to address, there must be a proper process and consultation as the concept of an owner-manager to ‘disconnect’ from their own work and compliance measures they need to fulfil might be a ‘fanciful’ idea.
Lastly, the organisation called on the government to immediately commence a process to review and update the definition of small business under the Fair Work Act and commence a process of harmonisation of the various definitions that exist at the Commonwealth level.
“The Closing Loopholes Bill remains one of the biggest challenges to small businesses in coming months and has already incurred significant damage in the form of fear and uncertainty,” COSBOA stated. “We are disappointed there has not been a focus on small business productivity in our industrial relations system, and the system is being made more complex and unworkable.
“Suggestions to blunt the rough edges must be adopted in full or small business will be left behind,” the statement added. “With the government’s moving of its commentary towards the cost of living, it is critical that small businesses are not provided with additional, unnecessary costs. The key to dealing with the cost of living is to improve the cost of doing business in Australia.”
With agencies such CreditorWatch predicting the business failure rate will increase from four per cent to six per cent by the end of 2024, COSBOA stressed that small businesses need policies that provide confidence and certainty rather than complexity and cost.
“As (we) said back in September 2023, ‘Small business has many self-proclaimed advocates and acolytes, but careful and considered policy settings are required rather than just goodwill’. No case could be truer than this bill,” the COSBOA statement concluded.
