Page 271 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 February 2016
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… employers must compensate employees for the disturbance to family and social life and religious observance that weekend work brings.
On 19 December 2014 the federal government engaged the Productivity Commission to undertake a review of the current workplace relations framework. The commission subsequently released five issues papers covering a range of matters and called for public submissions by March 2015. The commission released its draft report on 4 August last year, relevantly setting out the 45 draft recommendations for public consideration and input. The commission concluded its community engagement with the release of the final report on the national workplace relations system on Monday, 21 September last year.
As the Assembly will know, the federal Minister for Employment has said that the commonwealth government will not change overtime penalty rates for night work and shiftwork and that any changes to penalty rates would not apply to nurses, teachers and emergency services workers. However, the report maintains its interim recommendation to align Sunday penalty rates with those payable on Saturdays across the hospitality and retail sectors. The commonwealth government has stated that any industrial relations changes would be taken to the next federal election and that the employment minister would personally conduct direct public consultation on the commission’s report early this year.
Standing before the Assembly today, I take the opportunity to express my disappointment in the commission’s final report. More significantly, I express my real concern that the commission’s recommendations would create a two-tier penalty rate regime that appears to affect female workers disproportionately and is silent on the existing gender pay gap and equity issues pervading the modern Australian workplace.
The ACT government has very serious concerns about a number of recommendations, particularly those that relate to the potential erosion of workers’ rights. While the commonwealth has ruled out immediate changes to penalty rates, the commission’s recommendations overcome this barrier by recommending that the Fair Work Commission introduce the new penalty rates as part of its four-yearly review.
In this regard, the Fair Work Commission has already commenced reviewing penalty rates in a number of awards in the hospitality and retail sectors. The commission argues that the changes would act as a floor to the penalty rate, enabling employers to decide to pay more if they find it hard to attract employees on Sunday. The commission stated that while penalty rates have a legitimate role in compensating employees and should be maintained for working long hours or at unsociable times, Sunday penalty rates for cafes, hospitality, entertainment, restaurants and retailing should be aligned with Saturday rates.
The commission’s recommendations represent an attack on workers’ rights by stealth, and ultimately seek to remove weekend penalty rates for all workers in restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs. They would slash the pay of many of the territory’s lowest paid workers. Penalty rates exist because the community expects that if people forgo their evenings, weekends or public holidays to work, they should be compensated.
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