Dutton is a risk to your job flexibility and stability.
Started a new job in the last three years?
Chances are it was in a permanent position, with 9 out of 10 new jobs created during this time being permanent.
230,000 workers are now in permanent jobs instead of casual ones, due to a new common-sense definition of casual work that was introduced by the Albanese Government.
This overturned the previous Coalition Government’s approach of letting an employer call anyone a casual and getting away with it.
Dutton voted against this new job security for casuals and he has committed to take it away if he is elected – sending workers back to being at the mercy of employers’ dodgy decisions.
Gig economy workers on digital platforms also finally have minimum standards of rights and pay – no thanks to Dutton, who voted against world-first new laws to protect these workers.
Unfair dismissal protection
Workers in Australia should not have less rights simply because of the size of their employer – but that’s the reality one million workers will face if their employers are defined as ‘small’ businesses.
That’s exactly what businesses are calling for; lobbying Dutton to change the definition of a small business from 15 to 25 employees.
This change would see workers go backwards, with unfair dismissal rights significantly reduced, fewer opportunities for casuals to convert to permanent work, less options for flexible work and harder processes to recover wage theft.
The Coalition hasn’t ruled out these changes: in fact, this is something they would “consider” if they’re elected.
Right to disconnect
The Right to Disconnect, introduced by the Albanese Government, gives workers the right to say no to unreasonable contact from their boss outside of work.
Big business slammed the world-leading law, because it restricts how much they can contact workers outside of paid working hours.
Research shows the new right has reduced workers’ unpaid overtime by 33% since coming into effect last year.
Dutton’s Coalition voted against the new workplace right and have promised Big Business they will repeal it, if they’re elected – which will have negative consequences for workers’ stress and burnout.
Work from home
That’s not all Big Business is telling Dutton to cut: your right to work from home is on the chopping block too.
Why? Because they’re worried about “nauseating” work from home spreading from the public sector to the private, declaring “the last thing we need is for their ‘stay at home first’ attitude to infect our broader economy.”
In other words: Big Business want their workers back in the office and they know that you can only take working from home rights off public sector workers by taking rights off all workers!
Dutton and the Coalition voted against strengthening work from home rights. A Dutton-led Government will bow to Big Business pressure to take it away.
Dutton is a threat to women’s progress
The strengthened right to flexible work (such as working from home), has boosted employment for women with caring responsibilities.
It is just one of 20 reforms, introduced by the Albanese Government, that support fairer pay for women and have led to the gender pay gap closing three times faster, than it did under the previous Coalition Governments.
The Coalition’s Members of Parliament are 80% men – it’s no wonder they voted against nearly every single reform. Peter Dutton has no plan to make working life easier for women, or to close the gender pay gap.
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