With the Federal Election campaign now at the half way point, the nation’s leading workplace advisory firm for Small-Medium Enterprises (SME’s) has called on both sides of politics to step up and provide urgent support to struggling businesses as a priority.
Employsure CEO, David Price said SME’s, which employ about 41% of the national workforce, are critical to Australia’s economic bounce-back from the impacts of the global pandemic.
“We need all of our political leaders to talk with businesses to understand current challenges, listen to what they need and work with them to build more fairness between employers and employees. The fact is that SME’s are the engine room of the nation’s economy and they need support now more than ever to remain sustainable and successful,” Mr Price said.
“One of the biggest ongoing struggles for SMEs is compliance with worker remuneration, and we call on all sides of politics to put bickering aside and commit to simplification of worker display processes, award interpretation and employment contracts if they are serious about reducing the massive administrative burden the current approach creates for businesses,” he said.
“Small business have been through a tough time and continue to face challenges and uncertainty. Instead of throwing a lifeline to SME’s we see our political masters throwing them under the bus by branding them as unscrupulous wage thieves who are deliberately taking advantage of workers.”
“That accusation is a slap in the face for the many employers who want to correctly remunerate workers but make an inadvertent error because of the complex and constantly shifting award landscape.”
Since April 2021, Employsure has received more than 350,000 calls for help from businesses.
“That number of contacts is higher than previous years shows no sign of slowing down.”
“That should ring alarm bells in Canberra because it highlights the real complexity that comes with trying to stay sustainable, secure jobs, create employment opportunities and remain a compliant business in Australia.”
