PIAC provided a short submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Education and Employment’s Inquiry into the Government’s Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022.
The submission raised one issue not included in the Bill – the need to amend the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) (‘the DDA’) to ensure that people with disability are provided with reasonable adjustments so they are able to participate in the workforce on the same basis as other workers.
This is needed to address the problems caused by the Federal Court decision in Sklavos v Australian College of Dermatologists [2017] FCAFC 128, which has made the reasonable existing reasonable adjustments provisions effectively unworkable in practice.
The submission includes proposed amendments to the DDA, developed in partnership with People with Disability Australia, to ensure reasonable adjustments provisions operate as originally intended, for the benefit of people with disability.