Shock horror: Rudy Giuliani has COVID. Australia’s credulous reporting on casuals. Plus more tips and murmurs from the Crikey bunker.
On the bus The new industrial relations bill shows the good it can do a government to have an issue framed as they would like. Back in May, more or less every major publication reported on a wage claim against labour hire company WorkPac as though it conferred leave entitlements onto casual employees.
To be clear: the court did not find casuals might be entitled to leave. No one was found to be “double-dipping”. It just confirmed the well-established practice that people who work regular hours for three and a half years are not legally casuals, regardless of their hourly wage.
The framing as though this is all something new allows outlets to now cover today’s bill announcement (which also wants to introduce loaded rates rather than overtime, which worked out so brilliantly for the Shoppies union), as though it’s commonsense reform bringing “clarity” and “flexibility” to a problem that doesn’t actually exist.
