Government moves to protect employee rights with ‘closing loophole’ reforms

The Albanese government's new casual employee definition commenced last week, giving employees the power to choose permanent employment under the employee choice pathway.

The new right came into place on 26 February for medium to large businesses as part of the Closing Loopholes reforms and applies to eligible casual employees, gig workers and truck drivers.

The reform is set to come into effect for small businesses and their employees on 26 August 2025.

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Murray Watt, said Peter Dutton had promised to tear up the reform if elected, despite it strengthening protections for casual workers.

“Peter Dutton and the Coalition have not only opposed every one of the workplace protections we’ve delivered, they’ve also promised to wind them back if they win this year’s election,” Minister Watt said.

He said the legislation would close the loophole that left people stuck as casuals when they were working like permanent employees and didn’t get any of the benefits of job security.

“We understand many casuals like the flexibility and casual loading, and nothing changes for these workers if they choose to remain casual.”

Under the reform, a casual employee can now make a written request to their employer to convert to permanent employment if they have worked for their employer for at least six months, or 12 months if employed by a small business.

Workers could also request permanency if they no longer met the casual employee definition, which considered the practical reality of the employment relationship, not just how an employee was described in their employment contract.

Watt noted that businesses could still hire casuals but would no longer be able to force someone to be a permanent casual with the expectations of a full-time worker with none of the protections.

Australia’s gig workers and truck drivers also have new protections from unfairly losing their jobs under the changes, including the right to a human review of the decision to remove them from a platform.

The protections are subject to a six-month qualifying period and would also allow gig workers and truck drivers to seek assistance from the Fair Work Commission if they believed their termination was unfair.

Watt said digital platform and trucking businesses could still terminate a worker’s contract for a valid reason that related to their capacity or conduct following a fair process.

“For a long time, digital platform and road transport businesses have been able to punt gig workers off their apps without notice, and terminate truckies’ contracts without a fair process,” he said.

“If eligible gig workers and truckies believe they were unfairly treated, they will now have – for the first time – access to a simple, low-cost process to apply for reinstatement.”

“The process is fair and transparent and prioritises better communication. It’s reasonable to expect a review of a decision to essentially sack or suspend a gig worker to be made by a real person, not a robot.”