Dr. Dermot Coates:

I take the point that the type of practice described goes against the spirit of those protections for workers if the legislation is being used in such a way as to prohibit or constrain workers who wish to organise through unions, etc. I am not aware of any upcoming changes to the legislation to outlaw that specific practice or sharpen the penalties. We can speak to colleagues on the relevant legislative side to see when the Act was last reviewed or if there is anything scheduled for the next year. I can also feed back to them the Senator’s sense that there is a lacuna, which bad employers can take advantage of. From my experience, most employers are decent and try to do their best but if there are specific cases where employers are abusing the legislative provisions, I would not condone it.