The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has launched a campaign to push back against supermarket giants and other large employer groups wanting to abolish penalty rates in the retail sector.
“Penalty rates” are higher rates that can apply when a worker works evenings, weekends or public holidays. The Ben Chifley Labor government introduced them in 1947, after years of campaigning by the union movement.
The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) submitted an application to the Fair Work Commission on January 28. It wants to scrap overtime, evening and weekend penalty rates, work breaks and reduce rest times between shifts from 12 hours to 10 hours.
It wants any worker earning a miserable $53,670 and above on the retail award to lose their penalty rates, overtime, annual leave loading, allowances, breaks and protections around hours of work.
It said it proposal on penalty rate cuts could be compensated by a 25% rise in pay, revealing that the penalty rates give workers higher pay overall.
Joseph Mitchell, ACTU Assistant Secretary, said the retail lobby’s proposals are “an attack on retail workers’ ability to deal with cost-of-living pressures”.
Labor opposes the move to limit penalty rates. Minister Murray Watt told the ABC on February 21 the move would risk entitlements for 353,200 workers.
The Fair Work Commission review is looking at the General Retail Industry Award. It was prompted by the large number of submissions made to the broader modern awards review, requested by former minister Tony Burke.
Coles, Woolworths, Kmart and Costco have joined the retail employers’ push to cut awards. If successful, it would apply to level four to six roles where employees earn between $53,670 and $61,958.
According to the ACTU, the large retail employers made more than $7 billion in profits, as of last September.
Mitchell said while the supermarkets want these cuts to pay and conditions “under the guise of ‘workplace flexibility’,” big business will “use this as a precedent to push for lower wages in other industries, especially if the Coalition wins the election and rips open more loopholes”.
If the ARA’s proposal is agreed it would mean retail workers in so-called “assistant managerial roles” and above could choose to not be protected by maximum daily hours’ provisions.
If workers agreed to the pay rise, or salary absorption offer, they would forego their right to consecutive days off and they would not be covered by the right to disconnect.
They would also waive their meal breaks rights.
A 200-strong Unions NSW meeting in the Sydney Trades Hall on February 21 condemned the ARA plan to remove penalty rates.
Jenny, a casual retail worker and full-time student, told the meeting that “penalty rates for after-hours work are essential for students and other part-time workers, who rely on the extra income to pay their bills”.
Raj, a security guard, said that penalty rates for night work and variable shifts were “vital” for migrant workers like himself to support their families in the cost of living crisis. “Those of us in the security, cleaning and hospitality industries especially need to unite to defend our penalty rates.”
Watt and Labor Senator Tony Sheldon addressed the meeting, with Sheldon saying Dutton had “voted 48 times” against industrial relations reforms aimed at improving rights for workers and their unions.
[Sign the Unions NSW campaign to defend penalty rates here.]