ACTU: Regional workers and communities set to lose under IR reforms

The pay packets of regional workers will take a hit and communities will suffer if new workplace changes recommended by the Productivity Commission and backed by the Abbott Government, go ahead.

Speaking at the Productivity Commission’s first public hearing in Bendigo, Victoria today, Unions warned that retail and hospitality workers in Victorian regional and rural communities alone are set to lose up to $282.6 million per year if penalty rates are cut, according to McKell Institute figures. Regional and rural Victoria Local economies overall would lose up to $145.7 million in disposable income.

Cutting penalty rates would be a sudden pay cut for millions of Australian workers that will hurt local economies as families will have less money to spend in shops and businesses in communities around the country.

The Productivity Commission has called for an unfair two-tiered workplace system with Sunday penalty rates to be cut for thousands of Australians who work in restaurants, cafes and shops.

There is no evidence to show that cutting penalty rates increases employment or productivity – it is simply a raid on people’s wages that will create an underclass of working poor.

Local Bendigo workers representing hospitality, retail and health sectors will come before the hearing today to talk about the personal impact of having their penalty rates cut.

 Quotes attributable to ACTU Assistant Secretary Scott Connolly:

• “All Australian workers, especially those in regional areas deserve more from the Abbott Government.”
• “Cutting penalty rates is a pay cut that workers don’t deserve and can’t afford.
• “Cutting penalty rates has nothing to do with job creation or productivity - it is about cutting people’s pay packets and putting the money back into business’ profits.”
• “Unions will fight any move to cut penalty rates. If the Abbott Government wants to make rights at work an election issue – bring it on.”   

Quotes attributable to Jo-anne Schofield , National Secretary of United Voice:

• “Cutting penalty rates is bad for workers and bad for local economies."
• “The financial aspect of penalty rates is critical, but at the root of this is something equally important: values, community, and fairness."
• “Millions of workers in other industries are also entitled to receive penalty rates. They are watching the hospitality and retail industries with great interest because they know if these employers succeed, their own employers are waiting in the wings, ready to pick up the wage-cutting baton.”

Quotes attributable to Gerard Dwyer, SDA National Secretary:

• “The recent narrow debate from employers on penalty rates has been about the cost to business. It completely misses the untold story of the loss to local workers, local communities and local economies across regional Australia if penalty rates are cut."
• “Whichever way you look at it the families, communities and local economies of regional and rural Australia will lose if retail penalty rates are cut." 

Quotes attributable to Tim Kennedy, NUW National Secretary:

• “The McKell Institute makes clear that any move to reduce the wages of often already insecure workers will increase income inequality in Australia and we must as a movement fight against that.”
• “The Productivity Commission is supposed to be about higher living standards for all, but reducing penalty rates and keeping workers in insecure, low-paying jobs actively undermines this objective and will see millions of workers struggle”.