High penalty rates costing your business
Easter is not a time to celebrate if you are running an accommodation business this year. The major reason is that if you are paying a casual worker on shifts on all of the public holidays over the Easter weekend this year, you will end up having to pay the equivalent of a whopping 11 days' pay for four days' work!
This situation has the impact of devastating business cash-flows, operators having to resort to skeleton staff, shutting down restaurants and bars and operating the very minimum of your businesses services. How does this affect the reputation among international and domestic visitors of one of the largest service industries in Australia? The short answer is: unfortunately, poorly.
At 275 per cent for a casual, the penalty rates for public holidays are far too onerous and the Prime Minister indicated in front of a union conference her desire to legislate penalty rates into our lives forever, despite previously stating that these type of matters should be left to the independent Fair Work Commission.
The Association's view, which is our collective members view, is that penalty rates need to be reduced to reflect a fair market rate and give business the opportunity to employ more people, rather than less. The notion that every working opportunity outside of 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday is unsociable is an archaic argument that does not reflect the dynamic nature of the way Australians live or the way modern families operate their lives.
Our Association will be looking for evidence to present to the commission in 2014 to moderate the current circumstances that exist which make owners and operators fear staying open over public holiday periods, such as Easter. It is also worth noting that, in many circumstances, the accommodation industry does not have a choice to close, as we have a duty of care to our customers to provide them with what we advertise, unlike other industries which can just close up and wait until the public holidays are over.
On another note, one of our key support partners, American Express has committed to supporting our Association for minimum of another three years. American Express has been with the Association for many years and we would like members to support them and, of course, all of our partners who value the partnership with our industry and ensure we can deliver benefits back to you, our members.
Source: Accommodation Association of Australia, 25 March 2013
