First the right to disconnect… next up, a new work perk: Push for a radical change to annual leave

• Gig-economy workers and casuals amongst targeted group 
• Employees would be able to take leave from job to job 
• READ MORE: The one thing Aussie workers are banned from talking about 

Aussies have achieved the right to ignore bosses after hours and now there is a push for workers to be able to take unused leave to other jobs.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese raised the proposal during the last election in 2022, which would make annual, sick and long service leave ‘portable’.

The change is aimed at insecure workers who aren’t able to accumulate the same entitlements as part-time or full-time workers – such as casuals, contractors and those in the gig economy.

Australia’s biggest union-backed worker entitlement scheme Incolink has backed the proposal with chief executive Erik Locke saying he would like to Labor go beyond their election pledge and look at setting up a nationwide approach.

The proposal the Labor party pledged at the last election targets insecure workers, such as casuals and gig-economy employees. Under the scheme, these Aussies could take leave entitlements from job to job (pictured stock of bar worker)

In a radical overhaul, a proposal by the Federal government would see gig-economy workers able to accumulate annual leave

Mr Locke told The Australian the new multi-billion-dollar entitlement system would be like the superannuation scheme, with leave accruing in an employee’s account.

‘A national portable leave entitlement scheme, rolled out first in industries characterised by insecure work, and then nationwide, means critical workplace redundancy entitlements follow the worker – not the employer,’ he said.

‘Over time, the scheme would result in funds like ours growing to a scale similar to super funds and that, my friends, is a very good thing because it allows you to invest workers’ money to create jobs and improve their wellbeing.’

Not all agree with the radical proposal, which would give a safety-net to insecure workers.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox described it as ‘another zero productivity money grab’.

‘Most Australian workers would prefer to have extra cash in hand rather than a complex paper trail to a potential future benefit,’ he said.

‘Portable long service leave would create a new compliance and administrative burden on businesses and taxpayers.’

Mr Wilcox also said he believed most Aussie workers would rather have the money than have their entitlements caught up in a government system.

The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations is set to start consultations next month with both unions and employers about the proposal.

Bosses were left fuming at the Albanese government’s new ‘right to disconnect’ rules that will see companies fined if they contact employees out of hours to do unpaid labour.

Workers who don’t usually get the chance to accumulate leave could soon have a safety-net under the proposal. Employees would be able to transfer entitlements such as sick leave to different jobs

The provisions have been inserted in the government’s ‘Closing Loopholes’ Bill in order to get the required support from the Greens, and so will be passed by parliament this week, after Senate crossbencher David Pocock also backed the new laws.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Andrew McKellar called the new laws ‘ridiculous’ and ‘a triumph of stupidity over common sense’, arguing that after-hours contact was best left to be decided by employers and employees.

‘This is a bit of a thought bubble from the Greens,’ Mr McKellar told Sky News on February 7.

”It’s obvious this should be something that is able to be discussed between employers and employees.

‘In many enterprise agreements now we are seeing that there are perfectly sensible provisions, arrangements for how these sorts of contact arrangements should be made.

‘We’ve got to get the balance right but clearly there’s no need for government to be imposing itself here with legislation with penalties.’

READ MORE: Everyday tradies reveal their eye-watering salaries – and it’s making Aussies very jealous 

A woman working in the mining industry doing fitting and machining makes an astonishing $130,000 to $140,000 a year

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