Workers fight for penalties

Cutting rates would damage region, rally told

SHANE Townsend has spent more than three decades working in security, protecting people and property at all hours of the day and night.

As a single father, he relied on the extra income from penalty rates to help pay the bills.

He was at a union rally in Geelong yesterday to help launch a two-week campaign to fight for penalty rates.

“It costs us our health, it costs us our marriages, our relationships, our children suf- fer, everything,” he said at the rally. “We miss going to the football to see our children play. And if you do go, you’re sound asleep trying to catchup on 40 winks.

“We accept that punishment because that is our job but we should be compensated for it.”

The Productivity Commission is holding a public inquiry into workplace relations, including penalty rates, with the draft report expected to be released in August.

Paramedic Dave Redmond said penalty rates made up about 27 per cent of his annual salary, a fair compromise for working “unsociable hours”.

“In 27 years I think I’ve probably had about four or five Christmas Days off, so you’re working all those times when other people are off enjoying events,” he said.

Nurse Zita Henderson said when her kids were growing up she worked night shift and weekends because her husband worked during the week.

“It had a big toll on my family and I wish I could have spent more time with my children, but it wasn’t to be. I had to work to pay the bills,” Ms Henderson said.

ACTU president Ged Kearney also attended the rally and said if businesses stopped paying penalty rates it would end up costing them more in the long term.

“If you take income out of a family budget, the first thing people cut is that coffee on a Sunday morning or fish and chips on Friday night,” she said. “Cutting people’s wages is the worst thing you can do for any economy, particularly a regional economy like this.”

The Geelong Chamber of Commerce submission to the inquiry described penalty rates as “outdated” and said they did not reflect modern employment and social conditions.

“Many people want to work on weekends and public holidays to suit their lifestyle and personal needs,” the Chamber’s submission says.

“The negative imposition of excessive penalty rates is counterproductive to employment growth and often results in either the business not trading on days when penalty rates would apply or the . . . owner electing to work the extra hours to the detriment of their own health and wellbeing.”