The legislation includes a review of current wage awards, better protections and faster payment for subcontractors, and more compensation for firefighters exposed to cancerous chemicals.
The passage of the bill, which will go to the House of Representatives on Friday, had been virtually assured after independent ACT Senator David Pocock guaranteed his support at the weekend.
But it wasn’t without passionate, and prolonged, opposition from Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash, who had earlier called the bill “literally the most radical changes that the country has ever seen”.
The sticking point was multi-employer bargaining, allowing unions representing workers from similar companies to negotiate as one.
Cash peppered the government with questions for hours on Thursday but it wasn’t enough to block the bill.
“Question after question after question. Could any two retail stores be considered as having the same nature, another part of the common interest test?” Cash said, referring to a specific provision regarding what businesses would be subject to the expanded bargaining.
“You guessed it, it’s left to the discretion of the Fair Work Commission.
“So a butcher and a newsagency are both retail stores, would they be considered as having the same nature? Again, it’s left to the discretion of the Fair Work Commission.”
The delaying tactic was criticised by Labor politicians trying to pass an ambitious list of legislation in the last parliamentary sitting week for the year.
“Michaelia Cash has been debating our Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill for over nine hours,” Queensland Senator Murray Watt complained earlier in the day.
“Ten years of low wages wasn’t enough for these people.”
Businesses with fewer than 20 employees were set to be exempt from the expanded bargaining powers, as are construction companies, with greater protections negotiated for businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
“The changes and the legislation that we are debating tonight will reinvigorate the bargaining system, making it easier for businesses and workers to reach agreement with higher wages and productivity improvements,” finance Minister Katy Gallagher told the Senate.
“All of the international evidence shows that when you have effective bargaining arrangements in place, supported by legislation, that you will see the benefits flow, through wages and through productivity improvements and that is the kind of economy we want to see working for Australian workers and for Australian businesses.”
The bizarre jobs politicians had before running for election
The Greens also voted in favour of the bill.
Labor the Greens and Pocock also combined to pass the Restoring Territory Rights Bill, which will allow the ACT and NT to, among other things, make their own laws on voluntary assisted dying.
