Victorian government wants Labor’s wage theft bill to cover ‘reckless’ underpayments

The Victorian government is also calling for non-payment of superannuation to be added to Labor’s federal wage theft bill, a move backed by the Greens. Photograph: Nitat Termmee/Getty Images

The Victorian government has urged federal Labor to expand its proposed wage theft laws to include “reckless” underpayment and warned it not to override its state offence.

The Allan government has said the state offence would be “unlikely to withstand challenge” because it would be inconsistent with the proposed federal wage theft offence in a submission to an inquiry on Labor’s industrial relations bill.