Specufestor Cash appears today in an op-ed at The Australian:
Recently, the independent Fair Work Commission made a decision to make moderate changes to Sunday and public holiday penalty rates. They are not “slashed”. They have been adjusted to more closely reflect Saturday rates.
The decision applies to only five of 122 awards and affects only the retail, hospitality, fast food and pharmacy sectors. The changes will affect about 3-4 per cent of Australia’s workforce. The commission made it abundantly clear that its decision will have no impact on other industries.
…We understand that governments don’t create jobs, employers do. Small businesses employ millions of Australians who strongly support this decision. The evidence provided to the commission is typical of thousands of workplaces throughout the country.
For example, Mr Gough owns a specialty deli in Ballina that employs 20 people. Due to high Sunday penalty rates, he works on Sundays for free. He told the commission that with moderate changes, he could open the store’s bakery on Sunday, work fewer unpaid hours and pay for more staff.
…What Labor never mentions is that big businesses already avoid paying high penalty rates on Sundays because of pay deals negotiated with union leaders through enterprise bargaining agreements. These agreements include Sunday rates far below award rates.
Has Specufestor Cash read the Fair Work Commission ruling in which it noted that it is “improbable that … existing workers’ hours on Sundays would rise sufficiently to offset the income effects of penalty rate reductions”. By comparison, the deals struck by unions in collective bargaining agreements with larger businesses traded penalty rates for higher mid-week rates so take home pay actually rose for the vast majority of workers.
Second, it is worth pointing-out that workers in Accommodation & Food Services and Retail Trade already suffer from the highest underemployment in the nation:
Third, wages growth in Accommodation & Food Services has been the lowest of all sectors over the past 12 years, whereas retail trade has also experienced some of the lowest wages growth:
And this comes on top of record low earnings growth across the broader economy:
Thus, the FWC’s decision will adversely affect workers in sectors already containing Australia’s most vulnerable and poorly paid workers.
I have long supported greater flexibility for small business when it comes to industrial relations, including easier unfair dismissal laws, but cutting take home pay for no reason is pure and simple class war, especially on the young.
That the sell job is being put in the hands of Specufestor Cash – fresh from hiding the purchase of her fourth property from the public – turns it from ideological to toxic.
