Sunday penalties to be protected under FWA review: Shorten

SIMON BENSON
September 18, 2012
News Limited Network

Should they be sacred?

PENALTY rates for Sunday workers will be protected, the Federal Government ruling out a watering down ahead of a major review of industrial awards.

Its submission to the Fair Work Australia review has committed the Government to the current penalty rates system, worth up to $100 extra in the pay packet of the typical Sunday worker. Despite intense pressure from the retail and hospitality industries to abolish penalty rates for Sundays, the Government has ruled out changes which would leave workers worse off.

The move is likely to be met with renewed threats from some businesses that they may be forced to close on Sundays without changes to wage premiums, which they claim is making them uncompetitive.

Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten has not only rejected calls for their abolition, but said the Government had considered the views of the industry and found no economic argument to reduce the pay of weekend shift workers.

FWA is conducting a review of the 2010 awards under which the penalty rates in many sectors were standardised.

Retail employers have argued for halving penalty rates and limiting access to extra pay for part-time workers. Other sectors have pushed for their complete abolition.

The Government submission to the review, filed last night, said: “We believe in penalty rates, they are important, they support low-paid workers.

“We want to see modernised penalty rates reflect prevalent conditions across jurisdictions.

“The Government does not believe extended trading hours and a greater incidence of weekend work diminishes the need to compensate people for working weekends, late nights, early mornings.”

Mr Shorten said there could be no argument by retailers that lowering wages for their workers would make them more competitive when they were already among the lowest paid workers in the country.

“Australia may have seven-day-a-week shopping and the like but we should not surrender the concept of weekends and getting the balance right between work and family time,” he said.

“There are many ways for businesses to increase their productivity and competitive edge, and reducing complexity through the independent umpire’s review will help competitiveness, but just cutting wages for low paid workers is not the way to do it,” Mr Shorten said.