COSBOA issues workplace law change reminder for SMEs

The small business advocate has flagged important upcoming changes to workplace laws set to be effective this year.

The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) says small business owners need to remain aware and up-to-date on the upcoming changes to workplace laws.

COSBOA said the workplace laws would affect all small businesses in Australia and would include wage theft, the right to disconnect, awards and super on parental leave as well as special updates for WA businesses.

In addition to the upcoming law changes, COSBOA said it would endeavour to push back against some proposed changes to enterprise agreements as well as advocate for a change in the definition of small business.

“COSBOA is pushing back against some proposed changes to enterprise agreements. The Fair Work Commission wants to make certain changes that we think is creating too much red tape,” COSBOA said.

“We are also advocating to change what counts as a ‘small business’ – from 15 people to 50 full-timers (not including casuals). The Fair Work Ombudsman is looking into this, and we’ll be making a strong case for the change.”

From 1 January 2025, wage theft became a serious criminal offence which would receive increased scrutiny and punishment if workers were underpaid.

Honest mistakes wouldn’t get SME owners into trouble, however, it was crucial for them to keep on top of national employment standards and award obligations, as well as keep a sound track of records.

Also effective from 1 January 2025 were award updates and changes, with 37 modern awards getting updated.

The main points small business owners needed to be aware of included changing pay rates and the establishment of new rules about how long people could stay in entry-level positions.

Super on parental leave was also an important change to workplace laws this year, COSBOA added.

“Starting July 1 2025, the government will pay 12 per cent super on parental leave payments, while this is payable by the government, it’s good to know so you can support your team members who are starting families,” the council said.

Another major law change was the right to switch off law, which would become effective from August 26 2025.

This law would give employees the right to ignore work calls and emails outside of working hours as long as it was reasonable to do so.

To prepare for this, COSBOA recommended that employers look over employee contracts and policies, ensure managers know how to handle them and set up new processes to ensure changes could be dealt with efficiently.

Small businesses in Western Australia were also reminded to be aware of specific workplace law changes set to become effective from 31 January 2025.

COSBOA said these changes were exclusive to Western Australia as they would bring the state more into line with federal laws.

Upcoming workplace laws exclusive to Western Australia would include new rules surrounding the definition of a casual worker, clear rules about sexual harassment in the workplace, bigger penalties if state employment laws were broken and an increase of the casual loading minimum wage rate from 20 per cent to 25 per cent.