Labor to introduce new Bill to protect penalty, overtime rates for 2.6 million award workers

Labor will move to protect penalty and overtime rates for about 2.6 million workers, stating Aussies relied on the entitlements to make ends meet.

Labor will move to protect penalty and overtime rates for about 2.6 million workers, saying “hardworking” Aussies rely on the entitlements to “keep their heads above water”.

Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth will introduce the Bill on Thursday, and urged the Greens and Coalition to support the proposed legislation.

The law would prohibit the Fair Work Commission to reduce an overtime or penalty rate, or substitute the entitlements if it reduces the overall take-home pay a worker would otherwise receive.

An award would not be able to be altered if there was evidence that even a single worker would be worse off under an arrangement which traded an overtime or penalty entitlement.

Ms Rishworth said the change would protect about 2.6 million award-reliant workers.

“If you rely on the modern award safety net and work weekends, public holidays, early mornings or late nights, you deserve to have your wages protected,” she said.

“Millions of hardworking Australians rely on penalty rates and overtime rates to keep their heads above water, which is why this Bill is so critical and should receive the support of both the Opposition and the Greens.”

Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth is set to introduce the legislation on Thursday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The election promise was prompted by a FWC review launched the Australian Retailers Association to allow senior management to take a 25 per cent wage increase above minimum award entitlements in exchange for overtime, weekend and public holiday penalty rates and rest breaks.

The move has been backed by the supermarket giants, plus beauty giant Mecca, as well as Kmart, Costco and 7-Eleven.

Prior to the election, then employment minister Murray Watt wrote to the FWC to stop large retailers from cutting the entitlements, in a rare act of government intervention.

Enshrining penalty rates was a key demand from the Australian Council of Trade Unions, with secretary Sally McManus previously arguing workers should be compensated for sacrificing their weekends.

The proposed bill will override the FWC’s ability to reduce penalty and overtime rates in modern awards, or substitute the entitlements if even a single worker is worse off. Picture: NewsWire/ Nicholas Eagar

However, the legislation will likely will likely be opposed by the Coalition, with industrial relations and employment spokesman Tim Wilson stating the independent FWC was already responsible for ensuring “workers get the best arrangements possible for a fair days work”.

Instead he lashed Labor’s proposed Bill as being politically motivated.

“There is no threat to penalty rates,” he said on Saturday.

“What there is, is a political focus of the Government that isn’t focused towards improving the economic conditions to help small businesses grow, to enable them to go on and employ the next generation of workers, to give those first generation, those first jobs to young Australians so that they can be independent and be able to get on with their economic futures.”

Originally published as Labor to introduce new Bill to protect penalty, overtime rates for 2.6 million award workers