Big business attack on penalty rates based on lies   
05 September, 2014 | Media Release

Business leader Kate Carnell has been caught out blatantly misleading the community on the critical issue of penalty rates today.



ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver said claims by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) CEO that there is a direct link between penalty rates and jobs is misleading.



“The Fair Work Commission said Sunday penalty rates do not have a significant effect on Sunday employment,” said Mr Oliver.



“It also said the employers’ evidence did not reliably show that existing Sunday penalty rates negatively impact employment or that removing them would provide any significant benefit to business or job seekers.



“Ms Carnell would know that employment in the restaurant industry has grown above the national average since 2000.”



Mr Oliver said employers have been unable to present any evidence to back up their claims that cutting penalty rates is linked to higher employment.



“The Fair Work Commission highlighted that employers couldn’t provide a shred of evidence that more people were employed when penalty rates were removed or reduced in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia in the past.



“If Ms Carnell is genuinely interested in jobs growth and addressing youth unemployment, why isn’t she calling on the Government to reverse its decision to cut more than one billion dollars out of skills and training in the budget?



“Why isn’t she calling on the Government to invest in apprenticeships and traineeships instead of cutting them?



“Why isn’t she calling on the Government to outline a jobs plan for the nation at a time when we are seeing huge numbers of jobs, across a range of sectors, go offshore?



“The answer to all of this is that Ms Carnell is only genuinely interested in one thing – cutting penalty rates and cutting the pay packets of millions of Australians to boost employer profits,” said Mr Oliver.



Key facts and findings of the Fair Work Commission

    Sunday penalty rates in the Restaurant Award are neutral in respect of productivity and the regulatory burden because they do not significantly affect business turnover
    Employment costs associated with Sunday penalty rates do not have a significant effect on employment on Sundays
    The Sunday penalty rates provisions are not considered to have economy-wide effects
    There is a need to provide additional remuneration for people working unsociable hours
    The Restaurant Award currently provides additional remuneration for working on Sundays and should continue to do so

ACTU national assistant secretary Tim Lyons has a job so he doesn't give a rat's arse about the unemployed....employed

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No they are not - I see no call to increase rates. They are all asking for lower rates - not flexibility.

They want to reduce peoples pay rates.

These  b@stards have full on started a class war ever since they got into govt and we need to fight back instead of just whinge about them.  There must be somewhere we can go to find out which businesses are calling for the abolition of penalty rates because I for one don't want to do business with those b@stards.   

If a coffee shop or restaurant has a average of 200 customer for a days trading  and the business employs 4 staff and penalty rate is cut to single time and the business still get 200 customers would the business employ more staff.


poll added

Kytro wrote on Sep 7^th, 2014 at 12:49am:



The main argument that people are putting up, that want penalty rate cut for weekend work, is the business would employ more people, and I just want to know how business would employ more people if they didn't have to pay penalty rates for weekend or late night work

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I notice in the OP that they had to go to Goulburn to find business that is close on a Sunday and prepared to open if penalty rates were cut. Couldn't they find a business in Sydney that would do the same thing?