The Federal Government has passed the Fair Work Amendment (Transfer of Business) Bill 2012, which extends the benefits of transfer of business provisions to certain public sector employees.

 

Federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Bill Shorten, said that the passage of the Bill would give certainty to State Government employees whose jobs are outsourced to private employers.

 

“This legislation is a necessary response to the challenge of ensuring certain former state public sector employees who move into the national system as a result of a transfer of business generally retain the benefit of their existing terms and conditions of employment,” Mr Shorten said.

 

“The amendments will better protect entitlements of employees whose jobs are lost in circumstances including where a state government outsources work or sells assets and they are rehired by an employer in the national workplace relations system to do the same job in a transfer of business.

 

“The Government does not accept that these employees should be worse off, or that they should have their entitlements put at risk, simply because their jobs are outsourced.”