Two hundred and thirty thousand workers are now in permanent jobs instead of casual ones due to the Albanese Government’s IR reforms, according to a new report released by the ACTU today.
Nine in ten of all new jobs created during this term have been permanent, causing the level of casual employment to drop to 22.2 per cent of all employment, down from the average of 24.1 per cent under nine years of Coalition governments.
On top of this, the 687,500 casual workers who still want to switch to permanent work, now have access to a clear pathway to permanent jobs because of changes in laws to support more secure jobs.
The Closing Loopholes reforms passed early in 2024 include a new commonsense definition of casual employment, designed to stop employers from labelling almost anyone a casual.
The reforms also give workers the right to challenge their status and allows the Fair Work Commission – the independent workplace umpire – to step in to settle disputes. From today, an employee in casual work, not employed by a small business, can access these stronger rights.
These are all significant changes to the Coalition-era laws that allowed employers to call any employee a casual, left workers with no effective power to challenge it and let wage theft become a widespread business model.
Peter Dutton voted against these laws and has committed to reinstating this casual employment trap if re-elected.
Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary, Sally McManus:
“There are now two hundred and thirty thousand permanent jobs that would have been casual jobs if it were not for the Albanese Government introducing new workplace rights and keeping employment low. This is a very significant achievement and a boost to job security for Australian workers.
“Australians have more permanent jobs as a result of the government’s Closing Loopholes legislation, which cracked down on too many jobs being casualised.
“From today, many casual workers, also get stronger rights to convert to permanency if they want. While many people are happy with casual work, hundreds of thousands are not.
“Peter Dutton voted against all of these new rights for workers and has committed to repealing them if he is elected.”
