‘PENALTY RATES NEED A RETHINK’

Coast businesses push for fairness on penalties

GOLD Coast hospitality and small business operators want to be able to boost wages across the week instead of being hamstrung by weekend penalty rates.

Leading restaurateur Simon Gloftis said hospitality wages should be going up across the board but he said penalty rates were unfair on staff who could only work midweek: “My single mothers on staff who have to look after their kids on weekends don’t get that opportunity to work for the extra rate.”

GOLD COAST business owners say they support wage boosts for the city’s 20,000 hospitality workers but will not endorse a full reversal of the Fair Work Commission’s decision to cut penalty rates.

In the lead up to the Federal election the nation’s major unions have launched a campaign to reverse cuts to penalty rates on public holidays, and the moves to phase out Sunday rates over the next three years – but Gold Coast business owners want a compromise.

Respected Gold Coast restaurateur Simon Gloftis said hospitality wages should be boosted across the board all week and it was difficult to reward midweek staff with higher rates who deserved it under penalty rates.

“Hospitality on the Gold Coast is a seven-day a week operation, it is for most of Australia,” he said.

“So I’m a believer that wages should all go up all week across the board and not just change specifically for the weekends. That unfairly benefits some and not others – for example, my single mothers who have to look after their kids on weekends don’t get that opportunity to work for the extra rate.”

On ALP leader Bill Shorten’s plan to repeal cuts to penalty rates, Mr Gloftis said: “I pay well above the award and I do that because I want to have the best staff.

“I would like to see higher wages across the board ... I don’t know why it is when our business is mostly weekends the pay is more on weekends because there are people in my business who I feel need it, and deserve it, and aren’t getting rewarded like that.

“It’s a little strange.” The president of the Restaurant Industry Support Group Gold Coast, Glen Day, said he would prefer to see penalty rates paid midweek.

“I understand penalty rates have to exist and I agree with them on certain days,” he said.

“I would like them to come into play on a hospitality workers’ weekend like a Wednesday or Thursday when they really shouldn’t be working.

“If they are called in they should be paid more, that is a fair compromise and makes more sense than a big wage bill on the weekend.”

Mr Day said he would also like to see those who work on public holidays exempt from paying tax for that day.

“It would be a fair compromise and a bonus for those who have to work on public holidays and it would also support the businesses. There are only about 13 public holidays a year,” he said.

Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce president Martin Hall said the issue was incredibly important for members.

“Small business make up 97 per cent of the businesses on the Gold Coast and labour is the biggest cost,” he said.

“The cost of the penalty rates is a big part of the decision for businesses to remain open or to close on the weekend.”

Mr Hall would not comment on the political implications of Mr Shorten’s calls for changes to the rates: “Our chamber is bipartisan.”

From today, the United Voice campaign will run nationally across television, radio, print and online media, and will be reinforced on the ground by co-ordinated national actions, door knocking and phone calls to sway voters in target seats.

Union secretary Jo Schofield said over $50 million in wages has been lost from the Gold Coast annually due to the penalty rate changes.

“The hardworking residents of the Gold Coast deserve better,” Ms Schofield said.

“Everyone who gets paid extra for working evenings, nights, weekends or public holidays stands to lose.”