Fines up to $20,000 for Unfairly Firing Staff or Discriminating in Trade; Employees Can Now Share Pay Info; No More 5-Day Cap on Minimum Sick and Carer's Leave
Statutes Amendment (Industrial Relations Portfolio - No 2) Bill 2026
Legislative Council
House of Assembly
Assent
Topics
court procedures criminal penalties employment rights environmental protection industrial relations public safety workplace health and safety
Introduced by: The Hon Kyam Maher (ALP)
Links to official parliament websites
Effects of this bill
If this bill passes, it means that:
Employers can be fined up to $20,000 for dismissing an employee for a banned reason or for breaking the principle of freedom of association.
Employers are banned from firing employees who are temporarily absent from work due to certain illnesses or injuries.
Employers are banned from taking action against employees for exercising their workplace rights, making complaints, participating in legal proceedings, or taking part in industrial disputes.
People who discriminate when buying or selling goods and services can be fined up to $20,000.
Unregistered associations or agents who make false claims can be fined up to $25,000.
Employees can now ask other current or former coworkers about their pay and employment terms, and can share their own pay and terms with others to help determine fair pay outcomes.
Employment contracts or workplace agreements cannot include terms that stop employees from asking for or sharing information about pay and employment conditions.
The 5-day cap on the minimum standard for sick and carer's leave is removed.
Employees are entitled to 2 days of compassionate leave for family crises, including the death, serious illness, or serious injury of an immediate family member, as well as miscarriages and stillbirths.
People who carry explosives into banned port areas without permission, or breach the conditions of their permit, face fines of up to $50,000 for individuals and $250,000 for companies.
The Minister for Energy and Mining can declare specific parts of a port as banned areas for explosives, and the port manager must ensure explosives in those areas stay within set limits.
The regulation-making authority can set fines up to $50,000 for companies and $10,000 for individuals for breaking explosives regulations.
The Minister for Industrial Relations can approve or change codes of practice for workplace health and safety. These codes can be used in court as evidence to show if a legal duty was met.
Workers in the construction industry can now claim long service leave entitlements for work carried out up to 7 years ago.
The time limit to recover unpaid levies or other money owed under construction industry long service leave laws is now 7 years, and records must be kept for 7 years.
The South Australian Employment Tribunal can only order a party to pay the other side's legal costs in long service leave or civil penalty cases if that party's unreasonable actions caused the costs.
The Minister for Industrial Relations must consult with industry boards before changing the dates for when certain community services workers are covered by portable long service leave.
Trainees under a contract of training are now legally treated as apprentices for portable long service leave.
Bargaining representatives who are not registered associations must provide written proof that they are allowed to represent employees during enterprise agreement negotiations.
The Debate
What different members said when this bill was debated:
Kyam Maher ALP
“I move: That this bill be now read a second time I rise today to introduce the Statutes Amendment (Industrial Relations Portfolio - No 2) Bill 2026. This bill makes a variety of amendments to legislation in the portfolio of the Minister for Industrial Relations.”