Senator Eric Abetz

The Fair Work Ombudsman has made a startling admission, under questioning in Senate Estimates that, unbelievably, his office is unable to provide definitive advice to small business owners.

Fair Work Ombudsman, Nicolas Wilson, responding to a question from Shadow Workplace Relations Minister, Senator Eric Abetz, indicted that that any advice the Ombudsman’s office was able to give, if at all, is guidance, as opposed to advice that could be relied upon.

The Fair Work Ombudsman was questioned about a series of emails from his office to an online newsroom in Sydney seeking guidance about the Easter holiday arrangements in Tasmania.

The three page email to Payroll News’ “Ask an Expert”, titled ‘Dear Editor’, contained more than 20 questions seeking advice about holiday arrangements in Tasmania.

“This is an admission that the Fair Work Ombudsman’s office is, itself, having difficulty interpreting Labor’s convoluted legislation, let alone the confusion Labor’s so called Modern Award scheme has created for small business.”

“Clearly this situation does not engender much confidence in the business community when the Fair Work Ombudsman is unable to provide reliable, definitive advice to small business and is unable to source information internally and is reduced to scratching around externally to find things out,” said Senator Abetz.