Page 898 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Today’s announcement by the Fair Work Commission to modernise penalty rates for weekend and public holidays will provide much relief to retail and hospitality businesses in the ACT.
This will create new employment opportunities for many Canberrans, particularly in our growing tourism industry and makes the ACT a more attractive destination in the competitive global market.
There is no evidence that cutting penalty rates will create new jobs for Canberrans. On the contrary, it has been noted that none of the business owners called as witnesses by the restaurant and catering industry associations to the Fair Work hearings was able to suggest that the cut to penalty rates would cause them to increase either the number of employees or the number of hours worked. I would like to quote a local businesswoman, Roxanne Ebina, of nunie & YU, which is a clothing shop in Curtin, in your electorate, Mr Assistant Speaker. She said on WIN News on 15 March:
The savings that I’d make … wouldn’t be enough to put on an extra staff member. It’s just a little bit of extra money that would go into my pocket, and I don’t think it’s necessary. I think it’s really singling out certain sectors and saying your free time isn’t as valuable as other sectors of the workforce. I think it’s incredibly unfair.
It is great to hear Canberra employers standing up for their staff and employees. Even the Fair Work Commission itself acknowledges that there would be effectively no meaningful gains to workers at all. I quote from the decision summary:
… most existing employees would probably face reduced earnings … as it is improbable that, as a group, existing workers’ hours on Sundays would rise sufficiently to offset the income effects of penalty rate reductions.
There is no guarantee that this decision will lead to employers hiring more staff, but there is every guarantee that it will have detrimental impacts on workers affected by the change. In fact the Fair Work Commission President, Iain Ross, acknowledged that the changes to penalty rates would cause hardship for some workers. In handing down his decision he said:
Many of these employers earn just enough to cover weekly living expenses.
Make no mistake, Mr Assistant Speaker; while this decision affects only workers in certain industries now, it has implications for all workers who receive penalty rates. Nurses, paramedics, firefighters and many other shiftworkers are watching closely and looking to us to stand up and protect their penalty rates from future attack. Indeed I understand that news broke today that Sonic HealthPlus has proposed a cut to nurses’ Sunday penalty rates by 25 per cent in their new enterprise agreement. On this proposed cut, the Queensland Nurses Union has rightly said:
It has now become harder to protect penalty rates in existing enterprise agreements when they expire. We will be fighting hard to retain existing penalty rates for our nurses and midwives but we need to stand up and say this isn’t okay.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video