Retail giants targeted on penalty rates

Retail giants targeted on penalty rates

EWIN HANNAN
March 14, 2017
The Australian

@EwinHannan

The Turnbull government has ­accused some of the nation’s most high-profile companies of striking “sweetheart” deals with unions to slash penalty rates, commercially disadvantaging small businesses trading on Sundays. 

In a bid to undermine ALP and union opposition to the recent Fair Work Commission decision reducing Sunday and public holiday penalty rates in certain industries, the government cited about 40 deals struck by well-known employers that allow for below-award Sunday penalty rates.

Deals reached in recent years between the shop assistants union and employers including Target, Coles, Bunnings and Dan Murphys provide for Sunday penalty rates at time and a half compared to the award standard of double time.

However, the union’s national secretary, Gerard Dwyer, said yesterday most of the agreements provided for a hourly above-award rate, known as a “loaded rate”, from Monday to Friday that ensured workers were better off. The government yesterday ­accused Bill Shorten of “turning a blind eye” to the deals because the union was a major donor to the ALP.

“Big employers and big unions have done dozens of sweetheart deals to slash or remove Sunday penalty rates so that employees working on Sunday get paid well below what they would under the award,’’ a government spokesman said. 

“While Bill Shorten is playing politics with the decision of the independent Fair Work Commission and pretending to care about the Sunday rates of award covered workers, he is completely silent on the Sunday rates paid to workers under these agreements.” 

The spokesman said the deals ensured small businesses were “left at a competitive disadvantage and are operating on an uneven playing field when it comes to trading on Sunday”. 

Mr Dwyer said he was “not going to pretend that there was not time and a half in most of the agreements”. “Most of those agreements have got time and a half on Sunday and the reasons they have got that is the loaded rates,’’ he said. “It’s all about take home pay and those people are better off. They have superior junior rates, rostering and public holiday entitlements.”

The Opposition Leader said yesterday penalty rates played a role in the defeat of Colin Barnett in Western Australia.

“I believe it would have had an impact and I believe that as long as the conservatives, the Coalition, Mr Turnbull or the National Party or One Nation support the cuts to penalty rates, Australians won’t mark them up,” Mr Shorten said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Muffin Break and Jamaica Blue outlets employing 3000 workers across the country will be subject to a new workplace compliance partnership after the federal workplace regulator struck a national agreement with leading franchise business, Foodco.

In the wake of pay controversies damaging high-profile brands, Foodco approached the Fair Work Ombudsman, Natalie James, last year after members of the Franchise Council of Australia were invited to enter into compliance deeds. An investigation by the ombudsman last year found two Chinese workers were paid as little as $11 an hour at a Muffin Break franchise outlet in Hobar