Battle brews on weekend penalties
BUSINESS groups will use the leverage of a key Fair Work ruling to seek penalty rate cuts across a range of industries and awards, without the need for any new legislation.
The industrial umpire moved last year to reduce Sunday loadings for low-skilled casuals in the restaurant and catering sector.
This year the Fair Work Commission will consider submissions to alter penalty rates across nine industry awards, with peak groups from the retail, pharmacy and restaurant sectors pushing hard for a cut in Sunday rates.
Industries affected range from amusements and events to hairdressing and dry-cleaning.
Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive John Hart has revealed a plan to re-run last year’s successful case that saw penalty rates reduced for casual workers.
He will seek a standard weekend rate, bringing the Sunday rate into line with Saturday’s to ensure a 125 per cent rate for full-time workers.
“On the Sunday, it is currently 175 per cent for casuals and 150 per cent for full-timers, with the exception of those who are at (junior) levels, which was the appeal which we won last year,” Mr Hart said.
Labor’s 2013 amendments to the Fair Work Act may have had the unintended consequence of encouraging the commission to look at penalty rates in a commercial context, says the Victorian head of workplace relations at M+K Lawyers, Andrew Douglas.
“Bill Shorten moved, prior to the end of Labor’s tenure, to leverage a protective legacy for Australian workers,” he said.
“One of those issues was penalty rates, which was a key ACTU push at the time.”
The amendment directed the commission to take into consideration the need to remunerate people if they worked outside normal working hours.
“The amendment hasn’t changed the powers of the commission — the powers were always there — but what it has done is it has permitted a focus that is business-orientated around penalty rates,” Mr Douglas said.
As evidence the commission was now taking a broader view, Mr Douglas pointed to the decision to cut Sunday penalty rates for casuals on the Restaurant Industry Award by 25 per cent.
The executive director of the Australian Retailers Association, Russell Zimmerman, told The Weekend Australian Sunday penalty rates were crippling business owners and needed to be cut.
The association will make a submission to the commission urging that Sunday rates be reduced under the General Retail Industry Award from double time to time and a half.
“Our members tell us this is a huge concern to them. One retailer tells me that it’s costing them 105 per cent of his Sunday turnover to open,’’ he said.
“You can’t run a business when it’s costing 105 per cent of your turnover.”
Retailers had a more compelling case than restaurant owners because penalty rates under the General Retail Award were higher and retailers could not impose a surcharge on their customers, he said.
A spokesman for the Pharmacy Guild of Australia said the gild also would lodge a submission to reduce penalty rates.
“We think there needs to be more flexibility on penalty rates because times change, and the current regime under the modernised award has created a position where some pharmacies are either not opening or opening for fewer hours on Sundays and public holidays,” the spokesman said.
“Certainly we are encouraged by anything that confirms our belief that the Fair Work Commission will listen to fair-minded arguments.”
The commission is taking employers’ submissions on possible penalty rate variations until February 13. The hearings are scheduled to conclude in December.
The : Australian Joe Kelly February 7th 2015
