Industrial legislation in Australia in 2021

Abstract

By contrast with the flurry of legislative activity that accompanied the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the 2021 calendar year was a comparatively quiet one both in the Commonwealth and the States. Significant developments at the Commonwealth level included amendments to the FW Act to provide a definition of ‘casual’ employment; a ‘class exemption’ for small business collective bargaining and amendments to the laws around sexual harassment at work that were implemented in the wake of the National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces. At State level, NSW implemented further changes to various laws in order to further cushion the impact of the pandemic on working people, and the NSW Modern Slavery legislation finally took effect, 3 years after it was first passed by NSW Parliament. In Victoria, enforcement provisions for unpaid entitlements were enhanced, and the new Wage Theft Act 2020 came into force.