Scrutiny on the safety net: what the NES inquiry means for employers

Australia’s workplace safety net is under the microscope.

A parliamentary inquiry has been launched to review the National Employment Standards (NES), testing whether the Standards are fit for purpose for employers, workers, and the ever-changing economy.

The review is being undertaken by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations, Skills and Training (Committee) to assess whether the NES continues to operate as an effective and coherent safety net, including whether existing entitlements remain fit for purpose in light of the changing nature of work.

The inquiry will exclude several NES provisions, including flexible working requests, casual employment, parental leave and family and domestic violence leave, as these matters have either recently been reviewed or will be considered through separate statutory processes.

The Committee sought written submissions to inform its assessment of the operation and adequacy of the NES, which closed on 27 February 2026. Submissions have been made by employer groups, unions, individuals, academics, and advocacy groups, reflecting a broad and diverse variety of views. A number of submissions, from all sides of the debate, urge a wholistic consideration of the framework, focusing on its impacts rather than on individual entitlements.

Well, unsurprisingly, there is broad support for the NES as a universal safety net for employees in Australia. Six key themes of note emerge from the submissions made.

Annual leave entitlements

The leave entitlements in the NES draw a lot of attention in the submissions. The Australian Council of Trade Unions has been advocating for a number of years now for an increase in annual leave entitlements from 20 days per year to 25 days, a position opposed by employer groups such as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Electrical Trades Union, along with others, argue that leave entitlements should accrue based on actual hours of work, not notional hours as is the case presently. 

Protections for women and working parents

Multiple submissions focus on strengthening protections for pregnant workers and those returning from parental leave. The 12-month continuous service requirement for accessing unpaid parental leave is identified as creating a significant gap in protections, particularly affecting women with non-linear career trajectories, with a proposal to address this concern by removing or shortening this eligibility threshold.

There is also a push for the extension of leave entitlements to ensure that reproductive health conditions such as menstruation, endometriosis, menopause, or fertility treatment are adequately addressed. The Independent Education Union notes that research suggests that reproductive health conditions cost the Australian economy an estimated $21.3 billion per year in lost productivity.

Finally on this theme, arguing that caring responsibilities continue to fall disproportionately to women, a number of submissions advocate for the creation of a separate dedicated carer's leave entitlement, extending paid carer's leave to casual employees, and broadening the definition of "family" to include culturally significant relationships beyond the immediate family.

Casual and Insecure Work

Currently, casual employees are excluded from many NES entitlements including paid annual leave and personal/carer's leave. Multiple submissions advocate for extending paid leave entitlements to casual workers, noting that approximately 2.4 million casual employees lack access to these protections.

Small and regional business concerns

Employer-focused submissions consistently emphasise the disproportionate impact and the regulatory burden of NES obligations on small businesses, noting structural pressures on small to medium enterprises that are different from large employers. The Victorian Regional Chamber Alliance highlights that any significant expansion of the minimum entitlements will have material cost and workforce impacts that will be amplified in regional and rural economies where labour markets are thinner, operating margins are narrower, and the capacity to absorb additional costs is more constrained. Policy changes which are designed primarily with metropolitan labour markets in mind may have unintended and inequitable consequences for regional businesses.

Long service leave harmonisation

The current state-based approach to long service leave has drawn commentary from employer and employee representatives. It’s identified that the lack of a unified national standard creates compliance complexity for businesses operating across multiple jurisdictions and confusion for employees. Several submissions recommend that the Australian Government pursue a single national long service leave standard within the NES framework.

Technology in the workplace

It wouldn’t be a review in 2026 if technology didn’t feature heavily.

The expected impacts of increasing use of artificial intelligence has been raised in a number of submissions. The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations identifies that the economy is likely to see greater displacements as the labour market adjusts to the adoption of AI technologies, especially for cohorts already disadvantaged by digital and economic gaps. And, similarly to the Victorian Trades Hall Council, emphasises that redundancy provisions have a key role in protecting workers for abrupt or unfair disadvantage as technological change accelerates.

On the other hand, employers advocate for the framework to keep pace with the way technology and artificial intelligence can change the way we work.

The NES inquiry is a timely reminder that Australia’s minimum employment standards should not be treated as static compliance obligations, but as a framework being increasingly tested by changing work patterns, cost pressures, and community expectations. The submissions highlight a growing tension between the universal design of the NES and the varied ways work is performed across industries and regions.

While no formal changes have been made, the inquiry signals a shift from incremental amendments of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) to a system‑level scrutiny of how the workplace safety net operates in practice.

For employers, it is a prompt to step back and assess how current workforce arrangements rely on the NES, particularly in areas such as rostering, leave, and termination, and to identify where adjustment may be required if the inquiry results in clarification, technical improvement, or broader reform.

More broadly, the inquiry serves as a catalyst for employers to stress test existing workforce models, challenge long‑held assumptions, and ensure there is clear oversight of how minimum standards both support, and at times constrain, contemporary business operations.