Last Tuesday, 30 October the Gillard government's Fair
Entitlements Guarantee Bill was passed in the House of
Representatives. This bill will impact the current federal
government scheme known as the government's General Employee
Entitlements Redundancy Scheme (GEERS), which has been in operation
since 2001. It seems that this bill means that instead of covering
the current status quo of 16 weeks of redundancy entitlements for
workers who are made redundant when businesses become insolvent, it
would now pay for an unlimited amount.
To date the federal government has spent about $1 billion on
GEERS. The last financial year saw over $15 million worth of
entitlements paid, with GEERS working very closely with insolvency
practitioners in assessing claims. This new bill has met some
criticism not only on the principles of redundancy and enterprise
agreements, but ultimately the cost to taxpayers.
