The Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations introduced legislation on 24 November to make it easier for outworkers to receive minimum entitlements and to ensure compliance with the relevant provisions at all levels of the supply chain. The legislation provides a nationally consistent approach to workplace protection for textile, clothing and footwear industry outworkers by:
- extending the operation of most provisions of the Fair Work Act to contract outworkers in the textile, clothing and footwear industry;
- providing a mechanism to enable textile, clothing and footwear industry outworkers to recover owed payments from entities further up the supply chain; and
- enabling a textile, clothing and footwear industry outwork code to be issued.
The legislation will also extend specific right of entry rules in order to overcome limitations in the current provisions governing right of entry into premises operating in ‘sweatshop’ conditions. A Regulation Impact Statement was required for this proposal, but the Prime Minister granted an exemption on the basis of exceptional circumstances. A post-implementation review will be required within 1 to 2 years of its implementation.