Federal Election: What the major parties plan to do for retail workers
What the major parties plan to do for retail workers. Source: Yahoo Australia
Video transcript
- What the major parties plan to do for retail workers. Labor has pledged to legislate secure work as part of the Fair Work Act, which will affect retail, fast food, and other workers who have been on casual conditions for full-time hours. They want to limit the number of consecutive fixed-term contracts an employer can offer for the same role with the aim of creating more secure work. They plan to bring into law same job same pay for workers who get paid less for doing the same job as another employee.
Another big issue for retail workers is wage theft, which is reported to cost Australian workers more than $1 billion each year. Labor plans to make wage theft a National Crime by taking action against employees guilty of the practice. Here's what the coalition has committed.
$2.8 billion in incentives to train new apprentices and trainees on top of $7.8 billion this financial year to keep apprentices and trainees in jobs throughout a COVID-19-affected economy. They've also pledged $3.7 billion to support 800,000 new training positions across a variety of sectors, that include retail and $2.8 billion to train new apprentices and trainees.
The coalition's rebate program also aims to help disadvantaged younger Australians into work, including retail and fast food positions, through building life and employment skills. The coalition's skills and training boost also encourages small businesses such as retailers to invest in the skills of their employees and train new ones with outlets earning less than $50 million per year getting access to a 20% reduction in training courses for their employees. The government also announced those earning less than $126,000 a year are eligible for a tax offset of up to $1,500.
