Unions vow to fight Xenophon penalty rates bill

Unions have vowed to fight a proposal by Independent Senator Nick Xenophon to scrap penalty rates for some hospitality and retail workers.

His bill to amend the Fair Work Act would apply to employers with fewer than 20 staff.

Senator Xenophon says thousands of jobs are being lost because some businesses cannot afford to open when penalty rates apply on weekends, evenings or early mornings.

But the South Australian secretary of the shop assistants' union Peter Malinauskas says the bill undermines the principle of a weekend.

"We're really concerned with the Nick Xenophon bill because what it does [is] it creates two classes of workers, those people who get acknowledged for their work on a weekend and those that don't and we think that's a very dangerous precedent to set," he said.

David Gray, from United Voice, says workers' rights must be protected.

"Our members are very angry and we'll be mounting a campaign, along with other unions, to seek to defeat this ill-conceived bill, very similar to our public holidays campaign where many unions will be getting together and trying to bring to Mr Xenophon's attention the human cost of his actions," he said.

Source: ABC News, 27 August 2012