The fairness principle in this bill around double payments is that if you’ve been paid that 25% loading to compensate you for other things, you shouldn’t be paid for those other things as well.
And that if you were mischaracterised in your employment, and you make a claim and you are successful, it will be acknowledged, but that if you are paid that 25%, that should be used to offset your other claims, which we just think is a basic issue of fairness.
The business community estimates … if you don’t have that commonsense, fair offset provision, that the financial impost on the business community going back six years could be upwards of $39 billion, which could cripple a whole range of businesses at precisely the time when those businesses are struggling and need government assistance to grow out of the Covid-19 pandemic.
So this is about fairness, it’s about creating a clear distinction so that an employer knows and an employee knows, are they being employed as a casual, thereby receiving the 25% loading, or are they employed in some other way, as a permanent part-time, permanent full-time employee.
