Page 859 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 22 March 2017
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for workers in the retail, fast food, pharmacy and some hospitality industries be cut to the Saturday rate.
The retail and hospitality sectors employ 2.1 million people across Australia and employ roughly 28,000 people here in the ACT. Workers in these industries are some of the lowest paid in Australia. But our federal government thinks that these are the Australians who can most afford a pay cut.
In retail, full-time and part-time workers will see their rates cut from 200 per cent—double time—to 150 per cent—time and a half. For casuals, the rates will fall from 200 per cent to 175 per cent. Fast food workers will see their Sunday rates reduced from 150 per cent to 125 per cent for full-time and part-time employees. Hospitality workers will see their rates reduced from 175 per cent to 150 per cent. Pharmacy workers will receive a cut from 200 per cent to 150 per cent, whilst casuals’ rates will be reduced from 225 per cent to 175 per cent. These cuts represent a loss of up to $6,000 a year for some workers.
According to the Fair Work Commission president Iain Ross himself:
Many of these employees earn just enough to cover weekly living expenses …
And:
… the immediate implementation of the variations to Sunday penalty rates would inevitably cause some hardship to the employees affected, particularly those who work on Sundays.
By the president’s own admission, these cuts will cause financial hardship on working Australians. This is unfair. As well as targeting workers in hospitality and retail, the Fair Work Commission’s decision has opened the door to cutting Sunday penalty rates for workers in other industries, including nurses, teachers, cleaners, and social and construction workers.
If we accept the Fair Work Commission’s decision that Sunday is no longer an important day in Australian society, what will stop further cuts across the board? According to Maurice Blackburn Lawyers:
… there is now no barrier to penalty rate cuts being extended to any other industry that also has to work weekends or public holidays …
The threat of a flow-on cut to other industries is very real. These cuts therefore represent an attack on the rights of all working Australians. Cutting penalty rates will disproportionately affect the vulnerable members of our community: young people, single income families and women.
Young people are being told by this government to “get a good job that pays good money” in response to the housing crisis that is locking them and other low income earners out of the market. Yet this is the same government that wants to reduce the take-home pay of these workers, pushing the dream of owning a home even further out of reach.
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