Businesses continue to suffer over casual ruling

The Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry welcomes today’s appeal by WorkPac to the High Court in relation to the decision in WorkPac v Rossato, and the intervention by the Attorney-General in this significant matter. The appeal seeks to restore sense and clarity to casual employment for the thousands of Australian small and family businesses negatively affected by this decision.

Whilst ACCI welcomes the move by WorkPac to appeal the decision in WorkPac v Rossato, CEO James Pearson said the Australian business community will be desperately hoping to see common sense restored much sooner than the appeal process will likely take.

“The Rossato case is unlikely to be resolved by the High Court this year. Employers and employees simply can’t wait that long for certainty on the issue of casual employment in the current environment.”

“The urgency of fixing this issue has been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic as casual jobs were some of the first to go and businesses need confidence to restore those positions.

“Thankfully, the Attorney-General has announced that the focus of one of the upcoming industrial relations working groups involving unions, ACCI and other employer groups will focus on the issue of casuals.

“ACCI looks forward to working constructively with all parties on the working group to try to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

“The new evidence that employers could be exposed to more than $14 billion in backpay claims for double payment of entitlements is extremely alarming. At a time when businesses around the country are on their knees, and over 600,000 Australians are out of work, it is vitally important that the issues caused by the Rossato decision are fixed urgently in order to keep businesses afloat and workers employed.

“Casual employment plays an important role in providing jobs and flexible employment options for both employers and employees and will be crucial to giving thousands of Australians a foot in the door as businesses scale back up following the challenges caused by COVID-19.

“Restoring common sense to how casuals are engaged and paid will be critical to encouraging and restoring job growth in our economy.”