As expected, the fight to retain weekend penalty rates has moved into the regions, where many see it as a vexed and major issue with far ranging implications for all of us and with no clear and decisive conclusion.
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The productivity commission review of the Australian workplace relations system and its underlying premise of bringing Sunday penalty rates back into line with Saturday rates, will, of course, encourage many small businesses, but alarm many others.
Already there is disquiet in the wake of research that suggest workers in regional Australia might collectively lose between $170 million to $691million a year if penalty rates were cut.
In Tamworth this week, union leaders claiming any cuts would cost the regional economy up to $35 million a year.
Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association NSW secretary Bernie Smith said research released this week revealed retail workers in the New England electorate would be left out of pocket to the tune of up to $25.2 million a year if penalty rates were cut.
A cut to the penalty rates of Tamworth retail workers, who make up 12 per cent of the local workforce, could mean a potential $12.7 million loss of disposable income each year.
But Mr Smith claimed that when hospitality statistics were added to the total figure, the cost in lost wages jumped to up to $35.9 million and up to $15.4 million in lost disposable income.
They say local workers are facing a multi-pronged attack on their penalty rates, including from employers, the federal government, the recent productivity commission report, and the local business lobby groups.
As expected, the union says a cut to penalty rates without compensation is a cut to take-home pay workers can’t afford and don’t deserve.
The debate also adopts the premise that affected workers are also customers, too – and if you cut their take-home pay, they have to stop spending in some areas.
They argue there’s an irony in that it will be in retail and hospitality that they stop spending – the coffee, the cafe meal, even cutting back on the grocery budget.
As the McKell institute, a progressive policy research organisation, has reported before, the retail and hospitality sectors account for up to 20 per cent of rural Australia’s workforce – and therefore it could have a disproportionate impact on us.
As we’ve argued, there might not be conclusive winners if penalty rates are slashed.
It might be a matter of two-bob each way.
