Wins, Losses & Business as Usual

Penalty Rates Case

After extremely lengthy cases, the Fair Work Commission has decided to slash penalty rates for Sundays and public holidays for workers in the retail, pharmacy, hospitality and fast food industries. This will have a devastating effect on thousands of lower paid workers.

While it does not immediately affect workers under enterprise agreements, whenever we renegotiate an enterprise agreement employers will use this decision as a reason to try to reduce the wages and conditions of our members.

This is the second attack on penalty rates the SDA has had to fight since 2012.

The SDA has spent over $2 million in the two cases since 2012 defending penalty rates using the best industrial barrister and the best expert witnesses.

The reason this second attack was successful was that we had a Federal Liberal Government which used the Productivity Commission to undertake a review of the whole industrial relations system.

The Productivity Commission is a right wing deregulationist body which is completely predictable in its reports. As expected, it recommended that penalty rates for lower paid workers be slashed. This was used as so-called “expert evidence” in the Fair Work Commission.

It was the dirty work of the Federal Liberal Government using the Productivity Commission that led to the penalty rates of our members being slashed. See pages 4-5 for a detailed report on the decision.

 

Notwithstanding the bad news on penalty rates the SDA continues to work hard on behalf of members......

 

Christmas Day


We finished last year with a win — Christmas Day (25 December) was declared a public holiday.

This year, the Victorian Government will be legislating to fix this matter permanently.

In the future, whenever Christmas Day falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, 25 December will be a public holiday as well as the following Monday or Tuesday, as appropriate.

The SDA gave the lead on this issue to the trade union movement and did extensive lobbying. Other trade union secretaries recognise the work done by the SDA on the Christmas Day issue and have congratulated the SDA on giving a lead to the trade union movement.

 

Paid Parental Leave


The year started on a good note, with the Senate refusing to accept the Federal Government’s plan to slash the paid parental leave benefits that working mothers are entitled to.

The plan by the Federal Government would have seen our members lose thousands of dollars in benefits.

The SDA lobbied the crossbench Senators extensively on behalf of members. Our National Secretary, Gerard Dwyer, flew to Canberra last year to talk to the crossbenchers, following Union campaigns to send postcards to the crossbenchers.

Senator Nick Xenophon from South Australia decided to oppose these attacks upon the rights of lower paid working women, meaning the Government cannot get the legislation through the Senate.

Unfortunately, Senator Derryn Hinch from Victoria did not have the courage to stand up to the Government. He was prepared to buckle under pressure from the Federal Government in return for an extremely modest offset.

 

The SDA's Continuing Work


The SDA continues its work on behalf of our members.

The SDA is arguing a case in the Fair Work Commission in our retail award, fast food award and other awards for employees to be entitled to another day off or another day’s pay when a public holiday falls on a non-working day.

This is an entitlement under various enterprise agreements but is not an entitlement under awards.

Under awards, if a public holiday falls on a non-working day, the employee loses out.

The SDA is also making a claim in our awards for paid leave for employees to donate blood (a wonderful community service).

The SDA is also supporting the test case by the Australian Council of Trade Unions for paid leave for employees who are the subject of family and domestic violence.

The SDA continues to work with union solicitors Maurice Blackburn supporting overseas workers who have been exploited at 7 Eleven. Currently, we have made 33 claims on behalf of workers at 7-Eleven worth around $2 million. A small number of claims have been paid out. We continue to pursue other claims.