END THE UNFAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN

FAILINGS OF THE FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN:

Sham contracting is a massive issue which rips off construction workers but it’s clearly not a priority for the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The frightening thing is, we don’t know the full scale of the sham contracting because the ombudsman has completely dropped the ball.

In the 2019/2020 Budget, the FWO received $9.8 million to establish a Sham Contracting Unit
In the three financial years since then, the unit has recovered less than $1 million for workers who were subject to sham employment arrangements
Recoveries relating to sham contracting in the period 1 July 2018 – 30 June 2022 was $812,893, which represents 0.1% of FWO’s total recoveries in a period of time where FWO had declared sham contracting a “priority area”
The most recent ABS data indicates that construction has the highest percentage of independent contractors at 25% / 315,000 workers, and the highest proportion of non-employees (both independent contractors and other business operators) at 36%
Of that independent contractors figure, 117,900 (37%) told the ABS that they did not have authority over their own work – this is as close to a standard indicator of an employment relationship as is possible; independent contractors are meant to have total control over when and where they perform work