Penalty rates campaigner Craig Laundy ran hotels where workplace deal was scrapped

THE Turnbull government minister at the centre of its campaign backing the reduction in penalty rates had a workplace agreement at two pubs operated by companies he directed thrown out because it was unfair to workers

Liberal MP Craig Laundy “needs to explain why he claims to have always paid the award”.

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THE Turnbull government minister at the centre of the campaign for reduced penalty rates had a workplace agreement at two pubs operated by companies he directed thrown out because it was unfair to workers.

Assistant Industry Minister Craig Laundy, son of hotels tsar Arthur Laundy, was a director of companies which owned pubs in Sydney and Wollongong when an agreement it reached under WorkChoices was ripped up because the rates were significantly worse than the industry award.

North Wollongong Hotel was one of the workplaces that had the agreement ripped up because the rates were significantly worse than the industry award.

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Yet this week he railed at Labor and said his own business operated under the awards.

Mr Laundy, who left the hotel business after he was elected in the Western Sydney seat of Reid in 2013, said on Monday he was angry because he had always paid award wages but unions had ­allowed other workplaces not to.

But a workplace deal in effect at the North Wollongong and the Harlequin hotels was struck off by Fair Work Australia in 2012, with the Australian Hotels Association telling the tribunal the agreement left workers worse off.

The agreement at The Harlequin Inn Pyrmont was also ripped up. Source: website

“The award provided significant increases in penalty rates, overtime payments, annual leave loading and ­additional maternity leave for fulltime, part-time and salaried employees,” the tribunal’s decision reads. “It would not be against the public interest to terminate the agreements.”

Liberal Member for Reid Craig Laundy. Picture: AAP

Both hotels were operated by the Laundy Hotel Group, of which Mr Laundy was one of three ­directors until 2013. He was also a director of the companies which owned the hotels.

Despite this, a spokesman for the MP said his comments were a reference “to his 23-year career as a publican and the venues he managed, where he always ­employed his staff under the relevant award”.

“The two hotels in question were not managed by Mr Laundy,” he said.

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Labor employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor said Mr Laundy “needs to explain why he claims to have always paid the award, yet this agreement was terminated for leaving workers worse off than the award, including when it came to penalty rates”.

The workplace agreements’ termination came after Woolworths’ hotels business acquired the operations of Laundy Hotels’ pubs.