Sunday penalty pay set for cut

TENS of thousands of retail and hospitality workers are facing a weekend pay cut, with the nation’s Fair Work Commission set to cut double-time penalty rates for working Sundays.

Business groups say they are expecting a “favourable decision” today, with double time on Sundays reduced to either time-and-a-half – the same as Saturday penalty rates – or time-and-three-quarters.

The double-time rate under the general retail award is $44 an hour, meaning the cut could cost staff working a six-hour shift up to $66. But businesses say that having to pay such penalties are the greatest deterrent to employment growth.

Today’s decision will also lay the foundation for a new battle between the Government and Labor, which ordered the review of penalty rates when last in government.

Unions will today rally outside the Fair Work Commission in Melbourne’s CBD to “defend penalty rates”.

Anticipating a potential cut, Labor leader Bill Shorten said, “there could not be a worse time to cut penalty rates”. Employment Minister Michaelia Cash hit back, saying if there were a cut, it was because Mr Shorten ordered the review when he was in government.

After the full bench hands down its decision, president Iain Ross will tomorrow go on holidays until March 10, frustrating Federal MPs, who had planned to cross-examine him at Senate estimates next week.

Justice Ross will read out part of the decision, which is understood to be complex and not as simple as a cut or no cut. If there is a cut, it is likely there will be a transition period for businesses and employees, and the overhaul could be narrow, affecting just some casual workers employed in retail and hospitality. Businesses say “the devil will be in the detail”.

The Australian Retailers Association said yesterday: “Following the considerable financial contributions made by retailers and associations ... we are hopeful on behalf of the sector that the decision will be in the industry’s favour.”

National Retail Association chief executive Dominique Lamb said the greatest deterrent to employment growth in retail was penalty rates.

“The big players like Coles and Woolworths are already on enterprise bargaining agreements, which means they don’t pay penalty rates on Sundays, so the businesses this decision will affect are the small to medium businesses that are the engine room of the economy, and many of whom have simply had to abandon Sunday trading altogether because they just couldn’t find a way to make it viable when paying double time,’’ she said.