PARLIAMENT is set to resume next week, along with debate over a raft of changes to the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014 proposed by cross-bench and other Senators.

The government has had difficulties securing Senate numbers to assure passage of the Bill, which was first tabled in February 2014.

The Bill was last debated on 17 September 2015 – the last day of parliament until it resumes on 12 October 2015 – but still has not passed through the Senate.

The originally tabled government Bill sought to make a swag of amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 in the following areas:

• Unpaid parental leave
• Annual leave loading on termination
• Accrual of leave while on workers’ comp
• Individual flexibility arrangements (IFAs)
• Greenfields agreement making
• Transfer of business
• Protected action ballot orders
• Union access to workplaces
• Unfair dismissal hearings and conferences and
• Unclaimed money.

Provisions around IFAs, union access to workplaces and unfair dismissal have proven particularly unpopular with many non-government Senators.

In a sheet of amendments put forward by four cross-bench Senators, the only parts of the Bill that would remain are:

• Greenfields agreement making (with changes to the original Bill’s provisions likely)
• Protected action ballot orders and
• Unclaimed money.

In a separate sheet of amendments put forward by six cross-bench Senators, the three-month negotiation deadline for greenfields agreements in the original Bill would be extended to six, after which a business could take its best offer to the Fair Work Commission for approval.

While parliament is set to resume next week, the passage of the Bill, including any proposed amendments, is uncertain. It is also unclear whether new Minister for Employment, Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash, on behalf of the Government, will agree to various amendments proposed in order to secure passage of the legislation.

For further details of provisions of the Bill and proposed amendments, click here.