THE Federal Government’s new industrial relations laws have already come into effect and have been drawing plenty of discussion about what it means for small farm businesses.

One of the main issues was brought to light in an article in The Australian by Robert Gottliebsen, who recounted his experience telling some dairy farmers they will have to pay retrenchment benefits if they need to make an employee redundant.

The article referred to a change in the law that exempted businesses with 15-or-less employees from paying out redundancies. With plenty of confusion about the requirements of farm businesses under the ‘Closing Loopholes’ legislation, Beef Central has been some clarification.

According to a briefing document on the changes to the small business exemptions from redundancies, the new laws are directed at companies going bankrupt or into liquidation, rather than small business.

“This occurs when an employer downsizes due to insolvency to fewer than 15 staff, becoming a small business employer exempt from providing redundancy pay to employees under the NES (national employment standards).

“There will be no change to how the small business redundancy exemption currently applies to viable small businesses, including those that have restructured from a larger employer and are continuing to trade. It will only change how the small business redundancy exemption applies to employers that are bankrupt or in liquidation.

“The changes will not apply to terminations of employment that occurred prior to commencement, or if terminations that caused the employer to become a small business employer occurred prior to commencement.”

What about labour hire?

Labour hire has also been a controversial part of the legislation, with the Federal Government using the line “same job/same pay”.

Hamilton Locke special counsel Timothy Zahara said the law means that if an employer has negotiated an enterprise agreement for its staff, then they can’t use labour hire to pay less. He said labour hire employees will be able to apply for pay parity through the Fair Work Commission.

National Farmers’ Federation president David Jochinke was highly critical of it when the bill passed last year.

“It’s left farm businesses to deal with complex legislation and layers of red tape during the festive season,” he said.

“The average farmer doesn’t have a legal team to lean on to unpack this legislation.

“Farmers will be left to grapple with how they engage employees through labour hire in the context of this new legislation during the busiest time of the year.”

What next for IR laws?

The Federal Government still has more proposed changes to Industrial Relations laws, with only some of its changes passed at the end of last year.

More laws are set to be debated, including an aim to give casual employees a path to fulltime employment, changes to gig workers and independent contractors. We will have more on this as information comes to light.