Coronavirus: Employer and unions win bid to save hospitality jobs

A historic application to help businesses stay open and keep hospitality staff has been approved by the Fair Work Commission.

The move is specifically designed to help business stay open and workers stay in jobs.

Hospitality businesses will be able to cut employee hours and send workers on leave at half pay with 24 hours notice after a ground-breaking agreement was approved by the Fair Work Commission.

The agreement between the United Workers Union and the Australian Hotels Association to make significant changes to the industry award is designed to help businesses stay open and save jobs during the coronavirus pandemic.

National employers and unions are also holding urgent talks to try to get agreement on similar changes to the restaurant and clerks awards.

The UWU and the AHA jointly applied to the commission on Tuesday to vary the Hospitality Award and allow employers to reduce hours of employees and direct them at short notice to take leave at half pay for the next three months.

AHA chief executive Stephen Ferguson said the agreement could be extended beyond June 30 and he expected the changes to stay in place for the duration of the pandemic.

He said commission president Iain Ross had commended the AHA and the union for working cooperatively rather than being in conflict.

The union’s national president, Jo-anne Schofield said the industry was confronting a “catastrophic downturn”, with close to a million hospitality workers facing cuts to their hours, being stood down, or losing their jobs.

“Altering the award temporarily is an important step to help protect workers and their shifts during this unprecedented time,” she said.

“We have moved quickly to ensure the temporary changes provides a measured response that supports equity so that as many workers as possible can access hours of work. Importantly there must be consultation with workers about any change. And penalty rates, allowances and job security are all preserved.”

The agreement allows workers to be employed across different award classifications and gives employers more flexibility to re-employ workers on reduced hours when they start scaling up businesses when the economy begins to recover.

Attorney General Christian Porter said the joint approach was a practical, flexible, common-sense way to help businesses and save jobs during the pandemic.

“The move is specifically designed to help business stay open and workers stay in jobs and demonstrates that the level of trust and co-operation that can save jobs if done right,” he said.

“This is exactly what we need right now - employers and employees working together to help each other survive this pandemic – cooperating like peoples’ jobs depend on it, because they do.

“We are all shocked by the queues we are seeing outside Centrelink offices as the reality of this health crisis hits our economy hard and fast.

“The more businesses we can help keep open and the more workers we can keep in jobs, the better.”

Under the agreement, employers will be able to reduce hours for full and part-time staff to 60 per cent of full-time or regular part-time hours.

Staff can work across classifications, provided it was safe and the employee had the necessary qualifications, such as Responsible Serving of Alcohol certificate.

It allows employers to direct employees to take annual leave, with 24 hours’ notice, and provide flexibility for leave such as half-pay.

“These are common-sense provisions to be temporarily inserted into this Award that will help some businesses stay open to provide take-away services and save jobs during the conditions they are currently experiencing,” Mr Porter said.

“This could be the difference between survival and closure for some businesses and for some workers, the difference between staying employed or not.

“Other unions and employers, with government assistance, are currently working co-operatively on similar approaches covering key awards and I congratulate all those working co-operatively to help each other through this current crisis.