It was announced in last night’s Budget funding for a national labour hire registration scheme and the establishment of a dedicated sham contracting unit. The Fair Work Ombudsman will receive $2.3 million a year – or $9.2 million over four years from 2019-20 – to establish a dedicated sham contracting unit.
According to Budget papers, “the unit will more effectively tackle sham contracting by increasing education, compliance and enforcement activities, and dedicating additional resources to investigate and litigate cases.”
The Fair Work Ombudsman will be allocated an extra $10.8 million over four years from 2019-20 to boost its ability to conduct investigations into underpayment and related matters.
With this renewed focus on Labour Hire and those industries targeted as high risk for underpayment, Employers should pay close and immediate attention to their “extended workforce” (Labour Hire and subcontractors and outsourced workers) to ensure they are being correctly remunerated and afforded their statutory employment conditions and entitlements or they too could be found liable for any non-compliance.
Slower Wage Growth
It was also announced last night that the Federal Government has revised down its forecasts for wage growth to 2.5% but predicts wages will rise rapidly in 2020-21 to 3.25% a year.