The dirty secret about the Deloitte report, like so many of the other shoddy reports pushed by the business lobby, is that its figures are embarrassing.
The Deloitte survey is being used to push for cuts to weekend rates of pay in retail and hospitality, but only 36% of respondents work in those industries.
The survey is being used to claim that casual workers don’t care about being paid penalty rates, but only 13% of respondents are casuals.
The survey is being used to claim that young workers don’t need penalty rates, but only 4% of respondents are aged 16-21.
To compound this embarrassment, the Deloitte “analysis” distorts its own numbers to support a pre-determined anti-penalty rates conclusion.
Let’s be clear, the objective of ACCI paying Deloitte for this report was to build a case for penalty rates to be reduced for those “unworthy” retail and hospitality workers.
To do so, they need to argue that weekends are nothing special – just two working days like any other – that the very concept of a weekend no longer exists.
What the report really found
The problem is that the survey found the opposite.
An overwhelming numer of respondents said “I have some problem working on the weekend” (66% for Saturdays and 71% for Sundays).
This was clearly embarrassing for Deloitte, who decided to massage the numbers a bit.
In the survey, those workers who had a problem with weekend work were asked to give specific details about their problem. Did it interfere with religious activities, spending time with family and friends, work-life balance?
The split was fairly even across these, but some (10% Saturday, 14% Sunday) chose “None of the above”.
Deloitte decided those people – who specifically said they did have “some problem with working on the weekend” – actually had no problem with weekend work.
So when Tony Abbott cites Deloitte’s claims that “a large percentage of weekend workers, 44%… in the case of Saturdays and 43% for Sundays” are untroubled by weekend work, those numbers include 10% and 14% who specifically are, in fact, troubled by weekend work.
The Deloitte survey is being used to push for cuts to weekend rates of pay in retail and hospitality, but only 36% of respondents work in those industries.
The survey is being used to claim that casual workers don’t care about being paid penalty rates, but only 13% of respondents are casuals.
The survey is being used to claim that young workers don’t need penalty rates, but only 4% of respondents are aged 16-21.
To compound this embarrassment, the Deloitte “analysis” distorts its own numbers to support a pre-determined anti-penalty rates conclusion.
Let’s be clear, the objective of ACCI paying Deloitte for this report was to build a case for penalty rates to be reduced for those “unworthy” retail and hospitality workers.
To do so, they need to argue that weekends are nothing special – just two working days like any other – that the very concept of a weekend no longer exists.
What the report really found
The problem is that the survey found the opposite.
An overwhelming numer of respondents said “I have some problem working on the weekend” (66% for Saturdays and 71% for Sundays).
This was clearly embarrassing for Deloitte, who decided to massage the numbers a bit.
In the survey, those workers who had a problem with weekend work were asked to give specific details about their problem. Did it interfere with religious activities, spending time with family and friends, work-life balance?
The split was fairly even across these, but some (10% Saturday, 14% Sunday) chose “None of the above”.
Deloitte decided those people – who specifically said they did have “some problem with working on the weekend” – actually had no problem with weekend work.
So when Tony Abbott cites Deloitte’s claims that “a large percentage of weekend workers, 44%… in the case of Saturdays and 43% for Sundays” are untroubled by weekend work, those numbers include 10% and 14% who specifically are, in fact, troubled by weekend work.
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