A federal government proposal is threatening the freedom of choice for tradies to be their own boss according to Master Builders Australia (MBA) chief executive officer Denita Wawn.

Denita says the federal government is proposing to force independent contractors to give up their business to become an employee with policies described as ‘employee-like’.

“The proposed ‘employee-like’ policy goes beyond the Government’s purported original scope of supporting gig workers and leaves the door open to swallow industries across the economy. This includes well-established forms of work including independent contractors and self-employed tradies,” Denita says.

“The building and construction industry is made up of around 440,000 businesses, with over 264,000 of them being independent contractors, representing one in five workers.

“For decades, the industry has attracted individuals who choose to go out and be their own boss and have the freedom to choose the hours they work, the projects they work on, who they work for and negotiate their own fees and conditions.

“If the policy is implemented as foreshadowed in this paper, it will fundamentally upend and damage the entire building and construction industry which is founded on a model of specialist contract work arising from the way in which building work is performed.”

MBA has released its response to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations discussion paper on ‘employee-like’ forms of work and stronger protections for independent contractors.

Denita states the government policy “will not be feasible for businesses to have to permanently employ independent contractors” as it removes the rights of independent contractors to run their own businesses.

“The ‘employee-like’ measure represents one of the most significant and real attacks on the rights of self-employed and independent contractors,” Denita says.

“The proposed changes pose a serious threat introducing uncertainty, commercial risk and negative consequences for the community, consumers and an industry already grappling with disruptions, economic uncertainty and high inflation.

“MBA strongly urges the federal government to explicitly exclude the building and construction industry from their employee-like industrial law changes to protect the sector’s integrity and the rights of independent contractors.”