PRESIDENT of the Bega Chamber of Commerce Mal Barnes, who also runs pizza business Mal’s Pizza Bite, says excessive public holiday penalty rates means his staff will have to miss out on available shifts over Easter.
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“This year my business will be open, but only for limited hours and with family members working instead of my regular staff,” he said.
“I’ll have 30 staff members miss out on shifts over the long weekend.”
The CEO of NSW's peak business group has called the Abbott government “timid” and worker’s unions “hostile” in a letter to members regarding what he calls “excessive” Easter penalty rates that he says “close doors and reduce job opportunities”.
NSW Business Chamber chief executive Stephen Cartwright is on a mission to change public opinion towards award rates this Easter, covering the cost of printing up to 1000 posters for small businesses in the Capital Far South Coast Region alone.
“The excessive cost of employing staff remains the number one issue for business owners across NSW, and this has a direct correlation to the unacceptably high levels of youth unemployment in many parts of our state,” Mr Cartwright said.
The chamber has organised volunteers who make up the more than 200 Local Chambers of Commerce across NSW, to walk the streets of small towns, talking to café, restaurant and shop owners while distributing posters pointing the finger at high penalty rates as the reason behind shop closures and staff shortages.
“We know that the Easter break, with its four back-to-back Public Holidays, will create enormous pressure on the owners of cafes, restaurants and shops, who want to remain open to serve their customers, but at the same time simply can’t afford to open their doors due to the excessive penalty rates for their staff,” Mr Cartwright said.
Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane recently welcomed a deal between Australia’s retail, fast food, hair and beauty, and warehouse workers union the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) and South Australian business to remove weekend and public holiday penalty rates for retail sector employees.
The brokered deal between the two unlikely partners offers South Australian retail workers a higher base pay rate and the ability to choose not to work on weekends.
In Victoria, the SDA is urging the Fair Work Ombudsman to investigate claims some employers will refuse to pay penalty rates this Easter Sunday public holiday.
“Everyone is entitled to a fair wage and I think people should do it all above board, but businesses are being pressured to do it,” Mr Barnes said of the refusal to pay public holiday penalty rates.
“It’s not a problem paying penalty rates, they are just too high on public holidays.”
Mr Barnes said that he had heard of employers paying staff cash to avoid paying the penalty rates and stories of tourists visiting empty ghost towns over previous Easter breaks and deciding this year not to travel over the holiday period because buying food is becoming more difficult.
Secretary of the NSW Branch of the SDA Bernie Smith feels that businesses are attempting to back flip on their commitments made to workers when they were initially allowed to open for business on culturally significant days such as Easter and Christmas.
"Penalty rates are fair pay for working on these very special days for the community," Mr Smith said.
"At the time they wanted to open for trade they were willing to pay the rates, and the penalty rate for public holidays has been double time and a half since the 1960s.
"It's a campaign to cut penalty rates.," he said.
As the law currently stands in the hospitality sector, a full time, level one employee aged 16 and under shifts from a minimum hourly rate of $8.43 to a public holiday penalty rate of $21.08, while on the other end of the spectrum a cook grade five moves from a minimum hourly rate of $21.43 to $53.57 on public holidays.