Caleb Bond: Cutting penalty rates is sensible and have a small impact on a fraction of the workforce – retail and hospitality workers

PENALTY rates have supposedly been “slashed”. Destroyed, cut, ruined, slaughtered. Except they haven’t. For most retail and hospitality workers, it will only be a minor cut.

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PENALTY rates have supposedly been “slashed”. Destroyed, cut, ruined, slaughtered. Except they haven’t.

For most retail and hospitality workers, it will only be a minor cut. The 175 per cent Sunday rate will drop to 150 per cent for full-time and part-time worked. Casuals will get 175 per cent instead of 200.

It’s more of a shave. Certainly not a “slash”.

I understand that, as a young person, I’ll probably be pilloried for writing this. My face will adorn the dartboards belonging to all my old school friends (if it didn’t already). But cutting penalty rates is a sensible move when you consider youth employment as a whole — and it will only impact a small number of the workforce.

The case to keep penalty rates at their current level (note that they’re not being scrapped, as some would have you believe) is most often made by young people already in jobs and working weekends.

Without 200 per cent on a Sunday, they tell us, they won’t be able to live. They might have to forego the $20 smashed avocado breakfast.

Who could blame them for complaining? No one is going to willingly roll over and ask for their pay to be cut. But they must understand that their view of penalty rates comes from one of greed and self-interest.

They’re sure that because they’re already employed, they deserve more money than anyone else. But when you’re talking about a small cafe or local restaurant — the sorts of businesses most likely to be paying the full award rate — 200 per cent wages on a Sunday are a significant cost.

The more they have to pay, the fewer they can afford to employ. The greed of those young people already on exorbitant penalty rates is effectively locking other young people out of the employment market.

And given the current state of youth unemployment, particularly in South Australia where 19.1 per cent of young people are out of work and want a job, we should be doing everything we can to get youths in jobs.

Just shut your shop if it’s too expensive to open, the penalty rate-lovers say. So not only have you removed all opportunity for new employees to be taken on, but you’ve shut-out those who already work there. Slow clap.

Believe it or not, businesses are set up to make a profit. Business owners, just like their staff, want to take home enough money to support their families.

The penalty rate cuts will see casual workers get a 175 per cent rate for Sundays instead of 200 per cent.

Most small business owners see their jobs not to be ruthless managers riding roughshod over poor employees, but as members of the community. Small cafe owners and their staff know their regular patrons. They chat about life, the kids and where they’d like to go for a holiday.

Small business owners tend to be connected to their employees. They’re with them every day and are responsible for everything from the hiring to the management.

Almost everyone I know who has worked for a small business can only give positive feedback. They’re usually flexible, understanding and friendly. They know that happy workers equal more productivity and wouldn’t knowingly hurt anyone.

Big businesses, on the other hand, have diddled their workers out of penalty rates for years. And they’ve done it all with the support of the unions, that now have the temerity to jump up and down about penalty rate cuts.

Most retail workers in supermarkets and other store chains don’t get the full Sunday rate because the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association signed it away in their Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. They won’t experience any change to their pay rate because they’re operating outside the award.

So we don’t need to worry about the small cafe owners. They are the people most likely to put on an extra young worker thanks to this decision.

It might have a minor impact on the hip pockets of some young people, but it will make a huge difference to those who can now get a job.