Union push to keep weekends ‘special'

Union bosses have launched a campaign against employers pushing to scrap weekend penalty rates, out of concern that Saturdays and Sundays could lose their special appeal.

The current award for those working in hospitality can give workers 125 per cent of ordinary wages for working on Saturdays and 175 per cent for Sundays.

That may change after Restaurant and Catering Australia approached Fair Work Australia (FWA) to vary the award so that workers would receive penalty rates only if they worked for six or more consecutive days.

Louise Tarrant, a spokeswoman for United Voice (an amalgamated union which represents 130,000 workers in a wide range of industries including hospitality), believes the move could result in weekends no longer being considered special.

It could also lead to more temporary workers from overseas filling jobs because there would be less incentive for locals to work on weekends, Ms Tarrant said.

"Penalty rates currently mean that if you work on a weekend you get compensated for the fact that you are missing out on family time, social time, you are not able to participate in sport, or do all of the sort of things we expect to happen on a weekend," she said while launching the Save Our Weekend campaign in Canberra on Sunday.

"Once penalty rates go, then what is it about a Saturday or Sunday that makes it special, when any business can open on those days?"

Restaurant and Catering Australia CEO John Hart argued that most Australians wanted to eat out on weekends but establishments that couldn't afford to pay Sunday penalty rates were at risk of closing.

"So Australians will not be able to do what they enjoy most," Mr Hart told AAP.

Mr Hart said he believed Monday to Friday pay rates were now higher than those paid on Sundays before the Fair Work Act became effective in 2009.

"The Monday to Friday rate is already compensating for the penalty rates that we had previously, so the reality is our businesses cannot afford to open under a regime that imposes that amount of penalty," he said.

Source: The Herald Sun, 12 August 2012