Less opportunity with penalty rate cuts

It is so painfully unfunny how the only proponents of the Fair Work Commission's decision to cut penalty rates are the retired and those that work 9 to 5 Monday to Friday.

It is not surprising that Matthew Wales and the Chamber have welcomed the Commission's decision as it must be so unimaginably difficult to find an open cafe on a Sunday on the Peninsula.

After all as Mr Wales implied in his media release (February 23) the Peninsula is a desolate unhospitable place on weekends because business owners can't afford to operate since weekend penalty rates (which are older than I am) are just insurmountable.

Except its not and any business owner who can't afford to operate on weekends in a prime tourist region like the Central Coast needs to re-evaluate their business model.

These cuts are a very real slap in the face to the people who bend over backwards to keep retail and hospitality alive on the coast and it is disgraceful to target this demographic of workers, who fall into the lowest income bracket of the NSW workforce and who give up their weekends and public holidays so other people can enjoy theirs to the fullest.

Mr Wales can continue to spin the tale that this will be good for the Peninsula and that this will create more employment opportunities and bring more revenue to the area, but I say good luck finding staff happy to work under the same conditions for less pay.

I'm not sure what's funnier, that employment is so terrible in this country that the Commission is banking on people just taking the pay cuts to keep their jobs, or the fact that people like Matthew Wales think "employment opportunities" will arise from this.

It's just mind boggling.

What employment opportunities?

People losing their jobs for refusing to work Sunday's?

What about the people that refuse to work Christmas or Boxing Day?

Are we going to replace the people that won't accept the pay cut with people who will?

How does that count as an "employment opportunity," if it's just reversing who is and isn't employed?

And please don't pretend that this isn't a reality.

People will refuse to work Sundays and public holidays because of this.

People will lose work because of this.

Employees and business owners alike will suffer because of this.

Some people are set to lose up to $6000 per annum.

That's a kick in the guts if ever there was one.

Also the argument that employers can hire more staff now is moot because what hours/shifts will employers have to give other than those that existing employees already have?

Is it realistic to expect employers to hire people just to work Sundays and public holidays because existing staff now don't want to work these days with the loadings slashed?

These days often have modified working hours.

Is it feasible for an employer to hire someone just to work maybe one day a week on non-set hours?

As someone who's worked in many a competitive retail environment on the coast I can tell you that these changes are going to hurt so many workers in this region.

As Matthew said, the hospitality and retail sectors are tough at the best of times.

The conditions suck, the hours are often long and unfixed, meaning the employee has to give up any semblance of a clock off time and just cop it on the chin if its busy and on top of this customer service always has to come first (so when that one jerk walks into your workplace at five minutes to closing time you have to pretend like he hasn't just ruined your life).

The loading is literally the only redeeming thing about these industries aside from any internal perks like employee discounts which are determined by the business in question and not nearly enough to tempt me to work for a crappy hourly rate with no weekends.

The fact is this is a heinous attack on low income earners disguised as an employment initiative that will provide minimal employment opportunities since these pay cuts are not going to generate more work on any other day then Sundays or public holidays.

These cuts don't simply magic extra hours into a business.

Email, 27 Feb 2017

James Smith, Ettalong