CCIWA has joined the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) in its call for the legal definition of small business to be increased to help ease rising cost and compliance pressures.
Currently, the Fair Work Act stipulates that a small business has 14 or less employees.
CCIWA and ACCI believe increasing the definition to 25 employees or less would significantly reduce red tape for businesses.
CCIWA Chief Economist Aaron Morey told ABC that the complexity of the Act and the raft of workplace laws introduced by the Federal Government in recent years have made it increasingly difficult for small businesses to operate.
“As a business gets larger, it has more resources at its disposal to deal with incredibly complex legislation [of the Fair Work Act],” he said.
“You throw in the awards [system] and the multitude of different pay rates that you need to pay at different times of the day, different times of the week, different work activities and the like, and you see the enormous increase in penalties.
“This is just a commonsense proposal. Give businesses a bit more breathing room so that they don’t have this incredible risk hanging over their head at a time when additional complexity has been added into the IR system and into the economy as well.”
Minister backflips on small business exemption promise
ACCI CEO Andrew McKellar told 6PR the Government should uphold its commitment made in February, when Senator David Pocock supported the Government’s IR changes on the grounds that small businesses would be carved out of the civil penalty provisions.
“So, that was an undertaking that was given to get the support of the crossbench to get their legislation through … that’s a commitment from the Government and I think the Government should be held to account for the commitments it gives in order to secure passage of its legislation,” McKellar said.
However, last week Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt said the Government will not broaden the Act’s definition to 25 employees.
“There is absolutely no evidence we need to make it easier for small- and medium-sized businesses to unfairly sack workers – and that’s what this change would amount to,” Minister Watt told ABC.
This means businesses with 15 or more employees currently have the same legal considerations for civil penalties – such as for breaching an award, underpayments, unfair dismissal and right to disconnect – as large corporate businesses.
Morey said keeping the definition as is “doesn’t help the small businesses and it doesn’t help the people that are employed by them”.
CCIWA and ACCI expect this will be a prominent issue for Members in the lead up to the Federal election next year.
To be part of WA’s peak business organisation, get in touch via 1300 422 492 or [email protected].
