Tony Abbott has given qualified support to employers seeking to cut weekend penalty rates in some industries, and accused the former government of trying “to restore the church Sunday by closing the shops on Sunday”.
The prime minister played down the prospects of the government taking active steps to reduce penalty rates, but said he was “very happy” for employers to put their case to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) and for the independent umpire to consider the need to boost employment.
His comments followed the release of a draft report by the Productivity Commission that recommended reducing Sunday penalty rates to Saturday levels in the hospitality, entertainment, retail, restaurant and cafe industries.
“I certainly think there are some industries that are doing it very tough because of the changes that the former government made to bring back with a vengeance penalty rates on Sundays and public holidays,” Abbott told Radio 3AW on Thursday.
“There are parts of our country where it’s very hard to find anything open on a Sunday now.
“It’s almost as if the former government wanted to restore the church Sunday by closing the shops on Sunday. I think there is a case for looking again at this issue but I stress this: as far as this government is concerned these are matters for the Fair Work Commission.
“If people want to bring applications to the Fair Work Commission along the lines that it would help boost employment, help create a more dynamic economy if penalty rates were looked at again in this sector or that sector, fair enough, let them do that, but these things should be considered by the Fair Work Commission.”
The former Labor government’s Fair Work Act 2009 requires the FWC to review modern awards every four years.
Various employer groups have been pushing for changes to penalty rates and the FWC is reviewing the issue in the context of retail and hospitality industry awards.
Abbott said the government wanted to “maximise jobs and maximise economic activity and plainly if a business is closed on Sunday there are no jobs and if a town is shut down on Sunday there is no economic activity there”.
“We are very happy for people to go before the Fair Work Commission and put in a submission and let’s hope the Fair Work Commission is alert to the need to maximise employment and maximise economic activity,” he said.
The secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), Dave Oliver, said Abbott was “targeting those who can least afford it with another unfair cut”.
“There is no evidence to show cutting penalty rates improves employment or productivity – it’s a line trotted out by employers to cut wages and the prime minister has sold out millions of hardworking Australians by supporting this myth,” Oliver said.
“Looking after business lobby groups is more important to the Abbott government than the lives of millions of hardworking Australians who keep the country running.”
Labor’s workplace relations spokesman, Brendan O’Connor, said Abbott was trying “to influence and prejudice the decision-making of the independent umpire” to cut low-paid workers’ wages.
“Labor believes that these matters should be subject to consideration by the Fair Work Commission where empirical evidence is submitted and the commission makes a decision after hearing all relevant parties’ views,” O’Connor said.
Business groups have been lobbying the government to make major changes to workplace relations laws, but unions and the opposition have warned they will campaign strongly against any attempts to return to the Howard-era WorkChoices laws.
An Essential poll taken last month showed penalty rates retained strong public support. About 81% of respondents agreed that people should receive a higher hourly rate of pay if they were required to work outside normal hours such as night shifts, weekends or public holidays, whereas 13% disagreed with the assertion.
The poll also examined people’s views about the likely result of cutting penalty rates for hospitality and retail workers, with 61% favouring the option “businesses will make bigger profits” and just 20% accepting the other suggestion that “businesses will employ more workers”.
The treasurer, Joe Hockey, said he did not envisage legislation to change penalty rates, but called on business to “be more proactive in their engagement with the Fair Work Commission”.
“I don’t think it needs to get to the point of legislating at the moment,” he told Sky News.
Hockey said there was a need to “accommodate changing behaviour from consumers” including the rise of online shopping “24 hours a day, seven days a week”. He said if regulators made it harder for people to walk into a shop and talk to an assistant “they’ll buy goods online”.
Hockey said the hospitality industry had been disadvantaged by the award modernisation process.
On Tuesday the Productivity Commission published 46 draft recommendations spanning a range of politically contentious areas including unfair dismissal, the minimum wage, penalty rates and workplace flexibility. The commission also suggested a new type of statutory contract that would allow businesses to offer jobs with alterations to award conditions on a “take it or leave it” basis.
The Coalition, which commissioned the review as a basis for possible changes to present to voters at the next election, emphasised it was only a draft report whose recommendations may not necessarily be adopted.
The Australian Mines and Metals Association, a resource industry employer group, said on Thursday it was disappointed the Productivity Commission’s draft report had “fallen short of the systematic reform we so desperately need”.
