Ewin Hannan, Industrial editor
    From: The Australian
    February 14, 2012


RETAILERS have demanded cuts to employee entitlements to compensate for rising labour costs resulting from Labor's award overhaul, as the retail slump claims Sleep City as its latest victim.   

PricewaterhouseCoopers has been appointed voluntary administrator of Sleep City's parent company Furniture and Bedding Concepts and related entities. The 64-store bedding chain employs about 450 people.

In a submission to Fair Work Australia's award modernisation review, the National Retail Association has called for cuts in the penalty rates and casual loading paid to retail employees.   

The association wants minimum-wage employees to be able to trade higher wages and penalties for access to commissions and incentive payments.

The tribunal is required under the Fair Work Act to conduct a review of modern awards this year and employers are pushing for changes that address the increases in costs they claim occurred as a result of the original overhaul.


"For the majority of retailers, the modern award, in the first instance, led to higher labour costs and greatly reduced flexibility," the association's submission says.

"The award review process now creates the opportunity for employers to achieve productivity offsets to reimburse them for the increase in labour costs which should never have eventuated."

It calls for the removal of late night penalties applying on weekdays; a cut in the Sunday penalty from double time to time and a half, and the reduction in the casual loading from 25 to 23 per cent.   

The association's executive director, Gary Black, said retailers wanted an incentive-based pay structure but could not afford to have the new system exist in addition to the modern award rates.

Under the proposals, employees would initially forgo about $80 a week in wages and penalty rates, but he said they would be able to recoup that amount if they met performance targets.

Mr Black said the proposed scheme would "deliver employers the flexibility to structure remuneration to allow for a fixed base pay component and an incentive component".

He said the Gillard government had broken its promise that the award overhaul was not intended to increase costs for employers.

The proposed changes were needed "to fulfil the initial promise the introduction of the new award would be labour cost neutral, and to inject some flexibility in the current one-size-fits-all instrument".

"The . . . old manufacturing notion factories close on weekends and employment on weekends must be discouraged is completely out of step with the modern Australian economy," he said.   

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Nothing stopping them from paying extra if they want too.

Why would they ask for this if it didn't mean they would be saving money by paying less overall.

blackadder wrote on Feb 14^th, 2012 at 7:18am:

You have nothing to say as usual - nothing at all.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has been appointed voluntary administrator of Sleep City's parent company Furniture and Bedding Concepts and related entities. The 64-store bedding chain employs about 450 people.

Another business is going down the gurgler and all you cretins can attach your anger to is business calling for more help to stay afloat!

We are pricing our selves out of jobs, idiots.

Someone needs to stand up and say enough is enough, to save jobs and industry the cost of living along with the cost of wages needs to come down.

What morons you all are….the ride is over tools, and our bubble has not yet burst.

Where will all you hands out, gimme gimme gimme morons be then?

buzzanddidj wrote on Feb 14^th, 2012 at 11:05am:


The rent is the problem not the wage FFS.

In manufacturing the rate for Saturday is, time and a half the first 3 hours then double time.  Sunday the rate is double all day.