Federal government introduces new laws to protect workers’ award rates

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The government says legislation to protect penalty rates will provide a safety net for millions of award workers. Labor has introduced laws today to prevent big retailers from negotiating to pay their workers a larger salary instead of penalty rates or overtime. The Coalition says it has concerns the changes could hurt small businesses.

Transcript

00:00There's a case before the Fair Work Commission at the moment that was brought by a retailer's

00:07industry group that represents companies like, you know, Coles and Woolworths and Kmart.

00:13And basically they wanted to, the Fair Work Commission, to allow them to strike a deal

00:17with some of their lower paid workers who are on award rates, so those minimum award

00:22rates for retail workers, and say, look, we'll give you a 35% wage increase, but in return

00:29we want to do away with some of the penalties and overtime arrangements.

00:32Now, the government was really concerned about this.

00:35They felt that that would erode what is meant to be, you know, a flaw on wages and conditions

00:42that awards and minimum wages do.

00:45So ahead of the Fair Work Commission actually coming to a decision on this, they're bringing

00:49in legislation to say you cannot trade away those penalties and overtimes, those extras

00:56that come with the minimum and award conditions in the way that the retailers are asking for.

01:02So the government says, if you want to do that, go away and negotiate an enterprise agreement,

01:07don't strip away the underlying part.

01:09But the sector has been saying, look, this is a way that we can make business simpler,

01:14particularly for some of the smaller businesses, although note the case was brought by big businesses.

01:19They're arguing it's a simpler process.

01:21It allows a bit more clarity for employers and for staff to go, well, this will be your

01:26annual salary and there won't be as much variance, but you can be assured as to what it is.

01:31So one thing I think we should keep in mind here is that, one, this is the government legislating

01:36sort of ahead of the Fair Work Commission, and they've done it in this case, they might

01:40find themselves under pressure from unions in future cases to do this again, to intervene

01:45with legislation rather than let the Fair Work Commission come to a ruling on it.

01:50And I point that out because there's another case before the Fair Work Commission at the

01:53moment that's really interesting, that is about the award rates for, they're called clerical

01:59and administrative workers, but basically white collar admin workers who are in some of the

02:04lower paid entry jobs where there's work from home flexibility because employers are asking

02:09the Fair Work Commission to say, if you're working flexibly from home, we shouldn't have

02:14to pay you overtime or late night penalties if you're choosing to do your hours late at

02:20night rather than during the day.

02:21So that's another case to keep a really close eye on in light of the fact the government has

02:26moved ahead of this other case for retail workers.

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