Business push on Sunday penalties

MAJOR business groups will ­embark on a community and ­industrial campaign to cut Sunday penalty rates across a range of sectors, arguing it will increase consumer access to weekend trading and provide more youth employment.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Kate Carnell argued that if people wanted shopping convenience on Sundays they had to acknowledge that high penalty rates — of up to 200 per cent — were stopping some businesses opening and limiting the trading hours of others.

“We all expect to shop, eat and get pharmaceuticals on weekends,’’ Ms Carnell said. “But we need to address the profit issue for businesses that want to trade on weekends.

“I think Australians are ­accepting that penalty rates need to be addressed to help small-to-medium mum-and-dad businesses create more jobs for our kids.’’

Ms Carnell has flagged the campaign in the wake of a Fair Work Commission decision last month that limited Sunday penalty rates for inexperienced ­casual staff in the restaurant and catering industry to 50 per cent. The commission acknowledged a link between penalty rates and employment.

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia will target penalty rates when the Fair Work Commission reviews the Pharmacy Industry Award later this year.

The Australian Retailers ­Association is also examining a push to cut Sunday penalties when its award is reviewed either late this year or early next year.

Ms Carnell said ACCI was taking to all its members and its state affiliates about penalty rates and would mount an ongoing campaign.

While the government has ­indicated it does not plan major industrial relations reform in this term, the employer groups will use the Fair Work Commission’s review of modern awards as the platform to launch the campaign on penalty rates.

The push has Coalition backbench support.

Victorian Liberal MP Dan Tehan told The Australian last month’s Fair Work Commission ruling “conceded to the facts that many small business owners ­already know: penalty rates are ­hindering employment opportunities’’.

While the tribunal’s full bench rejected the push to cut Sunday penalty rates from 50 to 25 per cent, it ruled that an additional 25 per cent casual loading should no longer be paid to introductory level restaurant employees on Sundays.

“The hope remains that more industries, such as tourism and agriculture, with similar needs as restaurateurs and cafe owners, will be able to use the institution of the Fair Work Commission to resolve their obstacles to growth and jobs,’’ Mr Tehan said.

He said the Fair Work Commission’s decision for restaurants and caterers was “great news, particularly for young Australians who represent a large proportion of the industry and are suffering from a level of unemployment more than double the national average’’.

“The decision is doubly significant in that it has sought to begin to resolve a frustrated industrial relations matter without the need for interference by government. By striking the balance between workers’ interests and the necessity of feasible operations for the employer, the commission has shown that compromise is achievable,’’ Mr Tehan said.

Pharmacy Guild executive ­director David Quilty said penalty rates were “the industrial relations issue most commonly raised by guild members’’.

He said there was no certainty the Fair Work Commission’s decision earlier this month would flow on but it indicated “a willingness to look at the issue’’.

Mr Quilty said excessive penalty rates were discouraging pharmacies from opening on Sundays and public holidays.

Many pharmacists worked by themselves on weekends, or limited opening hours, because they couldn’t afford to employ staff in what was the highest cost and slowest trading day of the week.

“Everyone loses. Patients have reduced access to their local pharmacy. Staff who want to work are not able to do so. Pharmacy businesses close their doors rather than having the opportunity to trade,’’ Mr Quilty said.

Pharmacy workers earn double their hourly rate — 200 per cent — for working Sundays and the penalty rate rises to 250 per cent on public holidays. Australian retail workers receive double time on Sundays and double time and a half on public holidays.

Fast-food industry employees received a 50 per cent loading on Sundays and a 250 per cent loading on public holidays. Hospitality workers also receive double time on Sundays and 250 per cent on public holidays.

Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman said his organisation would examine revisiting its 2012 campaign to cut Sunday penalty rates when its award goes before the Fair Work Commission either later this year or early next year.

Mr Zimmerman said in 2012 Fair Work indicated that the ARA had a “very good case’’ but it was beyond the scope of its ­review.

“Frankly there is a turn of the tide on this issue,’’ Mr Zimmerman said. He said lower weekend penalty rates would allow small retailers to offer more hours to staff, which could cut youth unemployment or encourage more hours for older workers.

Small businesses owner Jeff Winfield said his profit margin was shrinking each year, as his overheads increased and he was forced to absorb the costs.

The boutique butcher from Sydney’s east said high penalty rates on the weekend had forced him to work on Sundays himself to reduce business costs, which would otherwise be passed on to the consumer.

Since opening in 2007, the 45-year-old has quickly expanded his Surry Hills business — Hudson Meats — to five separate outlets. But he said the extra stress and taxes that came with it had made him rethink the expansion. “For our employees, the award rates go up every single year and all other operational costs go up on a yearly basis as well, which we absorb unless we put up prices, which we are reluctant to do,” he said. “I’m unable to put the price of lamb chops up every year.”

Mr Winfield said penalty rates had hit him hard because today’s customers demanded businesses stayed open for longer. They were also required to stay open seven days a week, particularly if they wanted to remain competitive against the large supermarket chains.

“Traditionally butchers shops used to be open 5½ days a week. We’re open seven days a week, which is increasing our costs of operating a business,” he said.

Source:  The Australian - 3rd June 2014