Protesters were back on the streets demanding penalty rates be left alone when the Coalition government asked the Productivity Commission to look at workplace relations last year.
AAP/Angus Livingston
Cutting penalty rates can be a vote-changer and the looming Fair Work Commission decision is tricky for both sides of politics. So what cards do the parties hold and how might they play them?
There are reasons why people get paid more to work out of hours beyond the working week being a social construct.
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Penalty rates are often cast as a roadblock to business or employment but, research sees penalty rates as a deterrent against employing workers in ways that risk workers’ health.
Brendan O'Connor came under interrogation about Labor’s position on weekend penalty rates.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Normally it is the Coalition that is on the defensive over industrial relations at election time, with Labor claiming workers’ rights are under threat from the conservatives. But currently Labor finds…
The Productivity Commission last year recommended that Sunday penalty rates should be brought in line with those applying to Saturday.
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The federal opposition says that reducing penalty rates in the retail and hospitality sectors would widen the gender pay gap across the economy and hit consumption.
It’s not just young single people that work weekends.
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Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told the Q&A audience last week that a lot of cafes and restaurants are closing because of Sunday penalty rates. Is that supported by the evidence?
The great majority of Sunday workers who would lose penalty rates under proposed IR reforms, are non-unionists.
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Echoes of WorkChoices? The Coalition is keen to avoid any whiff of the failed policy, but some of the Productivity Commission’s recommendations have a strong flavour of it.
Cafe workers are among many that stand to lose Sunday penalty rates.
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The Productivity Commission has recommended paring back Sunday penalty rates, more consideration to economic circumstances in setting minimum wages, and a new form of statutory employment contract.
The Retail Council has said their research shows a significant proportion of retail workers were willing to work “the purported anti-social hours”.
AAP Image/Paul Miller
Are we all hitting the shops on Sundays in record numbers or are shopping precincts reduced to ghost towns on the weekends due to penalty rates? It seems employer groups want it both ways – and penalty rates cut.
There are still many reasons workers and shop owners avoid Sunday trading.
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Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott recently commented that if employees “don’t want to work on a weekend, fair enough, don’t work on a weekend … But if you do want to work on a weekend — and lots of…
A debate about penalty rates ought to involve the cash economy.
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Amid the ongoing debate over the future of penalty rates, a subtle but important issue also deserves to be examined: their impact on Australia’s “cash economy”. The Fair Work Commission is currently reviewing…
Like it or not, working on a Sunday is not the same as working on a Tuesday.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Not for the first time this year, Workplace Minister Eric Abetz has been forced to calm the rumblings after another government minister weighed in on penalty rates, and why they should be cut. Changes…
The government wants young people to be learning or earning, but at some point they should be treated as adults.
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When should a young person start getting paid as an adult? It depends on where the money is coming from, according to current government policy - policy that is sending conflicting messages about the true…
Tony Abbott has claimed penalty rates force businesses to close their doors
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With a major review of workplace awards underway, the Federal Government has asked the Fair Work Commission to consider whether penalty rates and other minimum conditions are still relevant. In this Viewpoints…
Are penalty rates becoming old fashioned?
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There have been renewed calls from employers - mainly in the retail sector - for reductions in the wage premiums (or penalty rates) that industries are required to pay staff for work undertaken at non-standard…