ACT government to investigate sick leave for casuals

Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson moved the motion in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday afternoon calling for the reform.

"We know that casual workers work really hard often with insecure hours for low wages," he said.

"We've seen through the pandemic the consequences of workers feeling compelled to go to work when they're sick."

Mr Pettersson's motion did not specify the breadth of the casual sick pay and what sectors it would apply to as he wanted to leave that up to the inquiry.

"I don't want to be too prescriptive, that's what the investigative work is for but I would flag an interest in certain industries being the target of this," he said.

"There are certain industries that suffer from casualisation at a far greater rate than other industries [such as] hospitality, retail, cleaning [and] security.

"In these industries you cannot get a secure full time job, you will be working casual for your entire time in that industry."

Mr Pettersson said it would be easy to set up, he said federal, state and territory governments had paid casual workers throughout the pandemic and the systems were already set up.

The Victorian government announced it would trial a paid sick leave scheme for casual and insecure workers in the state earlier this year.

The two-year pilot will cost the Victorian government about $245 million and will give eligible workers five days of paid sick leave a year. About $150,000 workers in the state are eligible for the scheme.

Mr Pettersson said an ACT scheme, based on the Victorian model, would cost about $7.5 million a year.

But the ACT government is unlikely to formally introduce any paid sick leave scheme until the Victorian pilot is finished. Industrial Relations Minister Mick Gentleman told the Assembly the findings from the Victorian scheme should be considered.

"Although I believe the Victorian scheme will be a successful scheme and create a blueprint for similar options in the future I feel it is prudent to consider the outcomes of a Victorian pilot before finalising a similar approach for the territory," Mr Gentleman said.

MORE A.C.T. POLITICS NEWS:

Mr Pettersson's original written motion was unclear about what form an investigation would take but prior to it being debated he said it would likely be completed internally by the ACT government in consultation with unions and other relevant stakeholders.

But opposition spokesman for jobs and workplace affairs Peter Cain moved an amendment to the motion calling for the investigation to be held through a Legislative Assembly committee inquiry.

"The Canberra Liberals do not oppose looking at the area of casual wage and the entitlements that accompany that but I think a full and open inquiry by committee would be fair to the whole community," Mr Cain said.

"It gives the whole community an opportunity to put in a submission, most of those will be made publicly available, we'll also give an opportunity for public hearings for the community to be fully engaged with such an inquiry about this proposal."

The opposition's amendment was agreed to by Labor and the Greens. Mr Pettersson said there was a benefit to committee inquiries as it allowed for public participation.

"I genuinely look forward to the committee process, I've got no doubt that the response will be overwhelmingly positive," he said.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: