Page 4069 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 17 November 2015
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I respond to some of the comments that we have heard here today. I respond to Mr Rattenbury’s comment—in regard to the question, “who pays for this?” in Mr Smyth’s contribution earlier—that government does not pay for the public holiday. It actually does. There are quite a number of government workers that would be working on Easter Sunday where penalty rates will apply. Those include doctors, nurses, police, rangers, bus drivers, paramedics, and the list goes on. In fact, it would be interesting to have a look at the number of public sector workers that will work shiftwork on those days and the number of private sector workers that will.
I am very pleased that the Canberra Liberals are supporting this important proposal to amend the Holidays Act.
On 5 August 2014 I announced I would examine the treatment of Easter Sunday and Anzac Day, well prior to our annual conference. Anzac Day is not a public holiday when it falls on a Sunday, although the substitute public holiday does occur on the following Monday. In light of stakeholder responses, changes to Anzac Day arrangements will now be reconsidered at a later time, given that it falls on a Sunday in 2021. This will allow additional time to consider how best to strike a balance between the divergent positions of employer and employee representatives and the costs and benefits to the ACT community.
It is acknowledged that the amendment is likely to have the greatest impact on essential services, including the health and hospitality sectors. There have been several unsuccessful attempts by employers to remove penalty rates from some of the awards in these sectors, and the addition of public holidays in some years will inevitably encounter a level of opposition.
On 19 December 2014 the federal government engaged the Productivity Commission to undertake a review of the workplace relations framework and released terms of reference for the review. On 22 January 2015 the Productivity Commission released five issue papers covering a range of matters, with submissions from stakeholders due by March this year. The draft report was released by the Productivity Commission on 4 August this year. This draft report covered a range of matters and contained 45 draft recommendations and one draft finding; there were a number of areas where the Productivity Commission was seeking further information as well. The Productivity Commission is continuing to consult on its draft report, and I understand that the final report is due to be provided to the federal government by the end of this month.
As I have mentioned in the Assembly previously, the ACT government has very serious concerns about the number of recommendations and is keeping a watching brief on the developments in these areas. These concerns particularly relate to the potential erosion of workers’ rights. And while the commonwealth has ruled out immediate changes to penalty rates, the commission’s draft report overcomes this barrier by recommending that the Fair Work Commission introduce the new penalty rates as part of its four-yearly review. In fact, as part of its four-yearly review of modern awards, the Fair Work Commission has already commenced reviewing penalty rates in a number of awards in the hospitality and retail sectors.
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