The Australian Retailers Association has welcomed the passage of the Industrial Relations Omnibus Bill through Federal Parliament.
The Bill, which helps provide clarity around casual employment, comes at a crucial time in Australia's business recovery, CEO Paul Zahra said.
"Casuals are a significant component of the retail workforce [and] having a clear definition of a casual employee is a significant win.
"It sets a clear path for them to transition to permanent roles if they wish, while protecting retailers from unfair ‘double-dipping’ claims which would have led to mass business closures and job losses.
"Businesses are making critical decisions on their workforces with the looming end of JobKeeper and can now breathe a sigh of relief the issue around casuals has been resolved," he said.
However, fellow industry advocacy group the National Retail Association has expressed its concern about what didn't make it into the Bill.
"Unfortunately, it’s not quite the victory the NRA was hoping for," CEO Dominique Lamb said.
"As many would have seen, to obtain the necessary crossbench support the government had to gut no less than four of its five key reforms from the legislation.
"While the one aspect that did pass, clarifying the legal definition of casual work, is welcomed, it’s disappointing that many other crucial issues remain unaddressed.
"In particular, injecting greater flexibility into the modern awards and enterprise bargaining would have helped many businesses more confidently navigate the challenging period ahead.
"As I have mentioned before, business and industry associations such as the NRA had already compromised on numerous aspects of the Bill.
"Australia is still far from out of the woods and with JobKeeper soon ending we can’t afford to be complacent when it comes to safeguarding jobs," she said.
Zahra acknowledged that not everything originally agreed to passed but was happy to see the casual employment segment go through.
"Industrial relations reform is never easy, and while not everything in the Government’s original bill has been agreed to, we have to take the wins whichever way they come," he said.