Sunday and public holiday penalty rates will be reduced

[davidc4430]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-23/weekend-penalty-rates-fair-work-commission-decision/8295758

my reading of this is that if we cut the wages of a group of workers it will make more jobs.

so i ask, why dont we just cut the wages of everybody, think of the jobs we would be creating?

of course we would only cut wages of wokers earning below say $100,000per year. dont want to upset the more efluent in society.

[amalan11]

I can see both sides but as it stands I do not think the wage cut will be enough to enough to hire an extra worker or open on Sundays ect so as Turnbull says it will "probably  allow employers to give each worker a couple of extra hours"  ... so effectively work more hours for same pay.If said worker has to pay for extra childcare they are going to be worse off  for sure.

One thing I found interesting as a casual retail worker my award will Go from 200% to 175% on Sundays and 250%to 225 % on public holidays so not a massive difference,but for for part time and contract staff it is worse 200% to 150%   Sundays  and 250% to 200% PH.

It seems to me that will be a big encouragement to companies to try and pressure casual staff into permanent roles as they would save a fortune  if staff member  works every Sunday as they would be able to  avoid both 25 % casual loading and pay 25% less Sunday loading .

The problem is going permanent is a huge cut to your pay every  week  and yet as a casual you are virtually  forced to do it or you get no shifts.I suspect the employment ombudsman  is hoping  to improve  employment figures by having less casuals but it will be imposible to live on the money as it will result in a much bigger loss of pay than just the current estimates . 

It is a worry

[myoclon1cjerk]

SABRA LANE: Let's start with the Fair Work Commission ruling on penalty rates. Do you support the ruling or not?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: We support the independent umpire, we support the Fair Work Commission, the expert body making the decision on this - as indeed Bill Shorten did, as you know, again and again and again…

SABRA LANE: Just hang on for a tick. I'm going to stop you right there because I stopped Bill Shorten from banging on about the other side when he was here last and I'd like you to talk about the ruling per se, not about the Commission itself. Do you support it or not?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, if you're asking me do I think that the penalty rate for a public holiday should be reduced in one award from 250 - 225 per cent, that is a matter that the Government has not decided. That is a matter for the Fair Work Commission.

I mean this is very important. A few days ago you were asking Scott Morrison where is the evidence.

The evidence is in the report which I have in front of me here. I have well over 500 pages. They're the expert body. They've heard all the submissions and they've heard all the evidence so they've made a number of adjustments and it's their judgement it's their decision.

SABRA LANE: Cool, but it is a ruling. Do you support it? It's a simple question: Yes or no?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, we support the independent umpire and therefore, their decisions should be respected and accepted and that is exactly what Bill Shorten had always said - and I know you don't like me saying that, but the fact is, he's a back flipper and he's a hypocrite on this.

SABRA LANE: You say that I won't like hearing that - there will be a lot of people who say, you are the leader of this nation, you should have an opinion and they would say that the language you are speaking to them at the moment is very 'lawyer like'…

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Why don't we stop trading debating points? Let's talk about low paid workers…

SABRA LANE: It's not debating points, I'm challenging you to have a conversation and to tell the people what you think.

[peteepie]

Just sickening.

[myoclon1cjerk]

He's a jellyback.

[chameleon54]

Compared to global averages, we are some of the highest paid workers in the world and enjoy some of the highest living standards in the world. The inconvenient truth is that in the past this has been propped up by our good fortune to be one of the worlds major mineral and agricultural products exporters. This wealth has in the past been spread across a fairly small population base.

With our government immigration policies pandering to the building and construction industries and retail sectors, bringing in more and more people, this is no longer the case. Our main wealth creators of mining and agriculture are being spread across twice as many people as thirty years ago. Over the past couple of decades we have been propping up our living standards through rising levels of debt.

Constant immigration, without a matching increase in GDP has created a giant ponzi scheme. With globalisition and slowing world economies, this ponzi scheme is starting to unravel. The result ........falling real wages or higher unemployment. The die has already been cast. The result is inevitable and out of any governments control.

[johcaschro]

It looks as if our living standards are about to fall a little bit more.

It's a curious fact of life that those people who support high levels of immigration (even for compassionate reasons regarding refugees, etc) and who might think that they are being all lefty touchy feely good guys, have fallen into a trap where they are actually supporting the very nasty right wing capitalist system which they criticise and abhor.

A high level of unemployed people in society acts to force wages down for everyone who is a worker being paid a weekly or fortnightly wage.

Karl Marx described this very well when he explained how capitalism depends upon a large number of unemployed job seekers who act in competition with each other for the available jobs and who will, in desperation, work for ever lower wages and even work any hours they can get (part time/casual) because they have to somehow feed themselves and their families and put a roof over their heads.

Reduction or removal of penalty rates will not create more jobs; it will just create more desperate people who will have no other choice but to work for the wages being offered because there are so many more people in the queue standing behind them who also have to work in order to live.

Employers know this very well and are no doubt licking their lips over the extra profits they will be able to pocket for themselves and for their shareholders. A large pool of unemployed to draw from remember? which means they never ever have to pay fair renumeration to their workers.

Whatever happened to unions?  Well, neoliberalism and ignorance and apathy happened. It seems to me that history might be about to repeat itself when desperate people are forced to remember the call to UNION.

It shouldn't have to be this way.

[peteepie]

Double time on a Sunday was always ridiculous.  The commission has made a sound decision that should have been made years ago.

Turnbull should just own it.

[davidc4430]

i wonder what would happen if those who work sundays suddenly began bringing a coffee to a custiomers table that had 20% less coffee in it or a sandwich with 20% cut off ect ect.

i doubt anyone would argue those getting the sunday pay rate are wealthy.

but a whole lot of people are throwing stones at them for getting paid extra for being slaves to those who dont need to work on a sunday.

think about this, today its sunday rates, where will it be next?

those who think this is fine as it doesnt affect me, well its early days, one day in the future it may well be YOU

[chameleon54]

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@johcaschro wrote:

It looks as if our living standards are about to fall a little bit more.

It's a curious fact of life that those people who support high levels of immigration (even for compassionate reasons regarding refugees, etc) and who might think that they are being all lefty touchy feely good guys, have fallen into a trap where they are actually supporting the very nasty right wing capitalist system which they criticise and abhor.

A high level of unemployed people in society acts to force wages down for everyone who is a worker being paid a weekly or fortnightly wage.

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chameleon 54 wrote -  I hadnt thought of that but it is actually very true. Its an interesting idea that the touchy feely, do gooder lefties are supporting policies to destroy the living standards of the poorest paid and most vulnerable workers for the benefit of big business......LOL.

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