Political fight over Sunday penalty rates cut

AN INDEPENDENT decision to slash penalty rates has set the scene for a vicious political showdown, with the Prime Minister accusing Opposition Leader Bill Shorten of lying.

• SCROLL DOWN for the argument for and against

• Penalty rate cut opens door to trading hour revamp

AN INDEPENDENT decision to slash penalty rates has set the scene for a vicious political showdown, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull accusing Opposition Leader Bill Shorten of lying.

Mr Shorten has accused Mr Turnbull of being “weak” in the face of a Fair Work Commission decision to cut Sunday rates in hospitality, retail, pharmacies and fast food.

About 140,000 South Australians work in retail and hospitality, according to the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association, and many of them will be affected by cuts that could add up to thousands of dollars a year.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: AAP/Dean Lewins

Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten during Question Time. Picture: AAP/Mick Tsikas

The Government, which will accept the commission’s recommendations, says the July cuts will allow more businesses to open on Sundays and for longer hours, creating more jobs.

The commission itself concedes some will be worse off but says, after a two-year investigation, that it believes there will be an overall increase in hours worked.

Mr Turnbull accused Mr Shorten of hypocrisy, pointing out that the rates review was his policy. Mr Shorten had also originally said he would stand by the commission’s decision but on Thursday he said he would do its best to stop the changes, and if that doesn’t work, to change the commission’s rules.

“This is Bill Shorten’s decision: he initiated it, he backed it, he owns it,” Mr Turnbull said.

“That’s why he’s not so desperate to blame anyone other than himself. Bill Shorten has no credibility, no integrity and no shame.”

Mr Shorten said Mr Turnbull’s acceptance of the recommendations meant workers had “been kicked in the guts”.

“He is out of touch. He will be pleased that workers’ pay will be cut,” he said.

“This is a terrible decision. It is going to absolutely cramp people’s confidence and we are going to see a downward spiral, lack of confidence.”

His attack was blunted by revelations that retail worker Trent Hunter, who stood alongside him and said he would be hit, was a Coles employee who came under a different award.

Senior SA Liberal Simon Birmingham said the tourism and hospitality industries in the state had to “seize the opportunity” because of our languishing employment rates and that it was up to businesses to ensure the promised extra jobs and vibrancy became a reality.

Labor had targeted SA Senator Nick Xenophon over his previous support for penalty rate cuts — his party’s position is now to accept the commission’s decision.

“Labor was right to criticise me for seeking to override the decisions of the independent umpire and Labor is wrong to be doing that now,” Senator Xenophon said.

His Senate colleague Stirling Griff said the commission was the one armed with all the facts and that it was “really quite a strange position” for Labor to question their recommendations.

The commission will now consider how to implement the cuts, and is likely to set up a transition period.

This will hurt the poorest people

— Sonia Romeo

THE Fair Work Commission’s decision to reduce Sunday penalty rates is damaging and unfair.

This week, I spoke to an SDA member who has three kids and a husband who works shift work.

Sonia Romeo

She works every Sunday just to make ends meet — not because she wants to, but because she has to provide for her family. This cut will cost her family thousands of dollars a year and she doesn’t know how they will make up the loss.

Penalty rates are not a luxury. Most people who rely on penalty rates are already our lowest income earners.

This reduction is a $1 billion pay cut to workers in the services sector. It will not deliver economic growth; it will suck demand out of the economy.

The decision means the weekend is under serious threat — something that retail and hospitality workers do not deserve but everyone else does.

We need to ask ourselves what sort of Australia we want to live in. One where we value the weekend and family time, or one where everybody just works 24/7?

The decision comes after many years of being egged on by the Liberal Party and the big end of town.

It is outrageous that the Prime Minister of our country refuses to stand up to protect the incomes of the lowest paid.

Thursday was a tough day for many people in the community but the union movement has fought and won these battles for decades. We will never stop fighting for fair pay and conditions.

Sonia Romeo is the Secretary of the SDA Union, which represents 28,000 retail, fast food and warehouse workers in South Australia.

Lots to be gained from rate reduction

— Sally Neville

THERE is no doubt that, after three years of considerable debate, the decision by the Fair Work Commission to reduce some penalties is a watershed.

Sally Neville

The 39 days of hearings, 143 witnesses and 5900 submissions have resulted in three very important principles being established – that reducing penalty rates creates employment, working on Sunday does not have the level of inconvenience that it did in the past, and neither does working during the early morning.

When you think about it, these are principles that are intuitively right.

We know that we all regard the weekend as different from the rest of the week but, as this decision reflects, Sunday is not as unique as it once was.

When you go out to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner, you might ask yourself whether it is the weekend or a weekday, but whether it’s a Saturday or Sunday makes no difference.

The decision to harmonise the Saturday and Sunday penalty rate under the Fast Food Award reflects this exact point.

What the decision forgets is that the restaurant industry employs 69 per cent of all hospitality workers and accounts for 82 per cent of projected employment growth in the sector.

If any change in penalty rates will provide an uplift in employment, it will be in restaurants.

Let’s hope that, after the next tranche of submissions in relation to the Restaurant Industry Award, the benefit of additional jobs and shifts for workers will accrue to our sector and the economy.

Sally Neville is deputy chief executive of Restaurant & Catering Australia