Fair Work Amendment Bill 2013

The majority voted against a motion to amend the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2013, which was introduced by Liberal Party Senator Eric Abetz and was directed at the part of the bill that enabled an employee who is bullied at work to apply to the Fair Work Commission (‘FWC’) for an order to stop the bullying.

The amendment would have expanded the bill's bullying provisions so that they included the conduct of union officials towards workers and employers. It also would have provided that workers were only able to approach the FWC for an order after they had first approached an independent regulatory body for help and advice, such as Safe Work Australia.

Someone who voted Aye supported the amendment. The majority voted No, so the amendment was unsuccessful.

Debate in Parliament

Liberal Senator Eric Abetz said that he did not have the opportunity to speak to the amendments in detail due to time constraints. However, he did emphasise the importance of expanding the bullying provisions to include the conduct of union officials.(Read Senator Abetz's comments and associated debate here.)

The Labor Government did not comment on the proposed amendment.

Background to the bill

The Fair Work Amendment Bill 2013 was partly made in response to a review of the Fair Work Act 2009 (‘the Act’) by an independent review panel in 2012. The Panel found that the Act was broadly meeting its objectives and so its recommendations were mainly technical. Approximately one third of these recommendations were implemented by the Fair Work Amendment Act 2012 and this Bill was introduced to implement several more of the recommendations as well as other reforms.

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