A luxury not a lifeline': call to defend penalty rates   

August 13 2025
The Chronical.
Unions want legislation passed quickly to protect penalty rates for millions of Australian workers.   

Penalty rates are a "lifeline" for Australian workers and major unions are backing a push to prevent companies from paying their employees less.

The federal government has introduced a bill that would protect penalty rates for almost three million award-wage employees, who work on weekends, public holidays, and at other unusual hours.

It follows a proposal to allow businesses to take away penalty rates, meal breaks and overtime pay for select employees in exchange for a 25 per cent pay rise, made by the Australian Retailers Association in February.

The Fair Work Commission is yet to officially decide on this idea, but Australian Services Union national secretary Emeline Gaske has urged the government to pass its legislation as quickly as possible.



"We know penalty rates and overtime are not a luxury, they are a lifeline," she told a Senate inquiry on Wednesday.

The ASU's Emeline Gaske says penalty rates are a lifeline, not a luxury. 

"They compensate workers for sacrifice of working nights, weekends, public holidays, when others are resting or enjoying recreation with their family and friends.

"For workers who rely on penalty rates, they are absolutely essential to making ends meet."

The bill still allows businesses and unions to bargain over penalty rate exemptions, as long as every employee is better off under that agreement than they are under the award.


"The only thing employers won't be able to do is pay workers less," Australian Council of Trade Union industrial and policy director Ben Moxham said.

A coalition of business groups including the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) have all opposed the legislation as they say it undermines the independence of the Fair Work Commission and restricts flexibility.

The Fair Work Commission is yet to rule on swapping penalty rates for extra pay for some workers. 

"The basis of for this bill is fundamentally flawed," the chamber's workplace relations director Shaun Schmitke told the inquiry.

"This bill fails to recognise that the broader community debate has moved on and has embraced the reality that the world we work in is rapidly changing."

Penalty rates apply the appropriate value to premium hours.

It is fully justified and necessary. The arguments against penalty rates are flawed and mostly dishonest.