The General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme (GEERS), which is helping former employees of 1st Fleet, will be saved if, as seems likely, the Financial Framework Legislation Amendment Bill passes the Senate. The Opposition has indicated its support for the Bill now being rushed through Parliament due to a High Court decision last week, in a case brought with the aim of halting federal funding for school chaplaincy.
By Rob McKay | June 27, 2012
The General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme (GEERS), which is helping former employees of 1st Fleet, will be saved if, as seems likely, the Financial Framework Legislation Amendment Bill passes the Senate.
The Opposition has indicated its support for the Bill now being rushed through Parliament due to a High Court decision last week, in a case brought with the aim of halting federal funding for school chaplaincy.
But the collateral damage from the case was the High Court’s ruling that deemed federal funding on a range of programs and initiatives illegal without accompanying laws.
The news will be welcomed by the Transport Workers’ Union.
“GEERS currently functions as a safety net for employees by ensuring that when a company goes insolvent, workers still receive their entitlements,” TWU National Assistant Secretary Michael Kaine says.
“After national trucking company 1st Fleet went into administration earlier this year, it was Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Bill Shorten who stood up for the rights of workers by providing early access to GEERS.
“The TWU is focused on strengthening and improving GEERS and other schemes for both employee drivers and owner-drivers, who are currently bottom of the lists when it comes to creditors in the event of a collapse.”
So far, the scheme, as it relates to 1st Fleet, appears to have been unaffected by the High Court decision.
Antony de Vries, Partner at accountancy de Vries Tayeh, which is handling the ill-fated company, has noticed no impact.
“As for 1st Fleet employees – our processing of their claims continue uninterrupted by the recent High Court decision,” de Vries says.
“We have already distributed over half of the employee entitlements to 1st Fleet’s staff.
“We do not expect any disruption to what we have put in place with the GEERS office and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
“We continue to process the balance of the claims and the Department has to date continued to provide the funding to meet the approved claims.
“The GEERS office has been very responsive to fast tracking these payments and they should be complimented for so doing.”
Tasmania has not been forgotten with the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme and Tasmanian Wheat Freight Scheme amongst those programs named in the Bill.
Live cattle exports business assistance including for improved supply chains.
Of infrastructure-related spending, the Regional Infrastructure Fund and National Building Plan for the Future Program are in.
In the Energy portfolio, the Ethanol Production Grants Program will continue.
Funding for the Australian Small Business Commissioner is also included.
Those who face carbon tax pressures may be glad that the Retooling for Climate Change and Green Building Fund programs are included.
Meanwhile, other bills to be passed in the winter sitting include the Tax Laws Amendment (2012 Measures No. 3) Bill, aimed at reducing the company rate for small businesses to 29 percent for the 2012-13 income year
There is also an amendment to the tax law to strengthen directors’ obligations to cause their companies to comply with existing pay-as-you-go withholding and superannuation guarantee obligations.