Michaelia Cash fails to follow Melissa Price on cutting weekend penalties

A Coalition backbencher has called for weekend and holiday penalties to be one standard rate.

The penalty rate structure is a ‘very complicated system that often acts as a deterrent to employers,’ says MP Melissa Price. Picture: Scott Carroll

Small business owners in retail and hospitality who could not ­afford to open on Sundays or ­public holidays would benefit from reforms to the “complex penalty rate system”, a Coalition MP has told the independent umpire.

Despite the Turnbull government’s pledge to refrain from making any input to the Fair Work Commission’s review of weekend pay rates, West Australian MP Melissa Price said in a letter to president Iain Ross “the ­impact of penalty rates on ­profitability” was “an issue that many small business owners in my electorate of Durack experience”.

Echoing the view of employer groups that have fiercely lobbied the government to cut weekend penalty rates, Ms Price said they offered a “very complicated system that often acts as a deterrent to employers”.

“This is a concern to me as I ­believe in Durack, Sunday and public holiday trading is desired by constituents.”

Ms Price proposed aligning all weekend and public holidays to one “non-standard” rate.

“I believe that this has merit and would result in an increase in business opening hours and therefore employment in Durack,” she said in the letter published as a submission on the FWC website.

She did not say what the rate should be but her proposal went further than a Productivity Commission’s report last year, which recommended cutting Sunday penalty rates to Saturday rates for retail and hospitality but did not argue for a cut in public holiday rates.

“I believe that many small business owners in Durack consider that by having so many tiers of penalty rates, it dictates employers’ opening times not only on the basis of demand but also on the variation in cost,” Ms Price said.

Opposition workplace relations spokesman Brendan O’Connor seized on the submission yesterday as evidence of the ­Coalition “trying to unduly ­pressure” the FWC’s decision”.

The government deferred adopting any of the Productivity Commission’s recommendations by planning a series of roundtable consultations this year.

The report met furious ­oppo­sition from unions and Labor, which have vowed to fight any moves to cut weekend penalty rates.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash, a senator for Western Australia, has also argued that high weekend wage costs could pose a barrier to businesses ­opening.

However, she yesterday ­distanced herself from Ms Price’s submission.

“This was done by Ms Price as a private member,” Senator Cash said.

“The government has not made a submission to the Fair Work Commission’s penalty rates hearings. It does not plan to do so.”

A spokesman for Ms Price ­insisted she wrote the letter of “her own volition” to “represent a constituent”.