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160,000 workers lose overtime pay and Minister Hockey doesn't care
The Minister for Workplace Relations Joe Hockey has sought to deliberately mislead the public over the loss of workers' overtime loadings and penalty rates in the first 13 months of the Government's new IR laws says the ACTU.
Latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on working hours shows more than half of Australia's 8.6 million employees are working overtime without being compensated.
This morning, the Minister wrongly said in response to this new data:
"In those 13 months, it would be a very small fraction of the AWAs that would not provide penalty rates. So you're talking about a fraction of one per cent of the Australian workforce that has traded away penalty rates for no compensation." (Joe Hockey, ABC radio 30/5/2007)
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said:
"The Minister knows very well that figures released by the Government's OEA employment watchdog to a Senate Estimates Committee shows that 51% of AWAs registered under the new WorkChoices IR laws abolished overtime loadings and 63% abolished penalty rates.
This shows that in the first 13 months of the new WorkChoices IR laws 160,000 Australians lost overtime loadings and 201,000 lost penalty rates - closer to 2% of the workforce.
At the same time, there is no indication that workers were compensated for the loss of overtime loadings. Other figures show that as few as one in four (24%) AWA individual contracts provided workers with a guaranteed pay rise for the life of the contract - some for as long as five years.
The Minister doesn't seem to care that the Howard Government's IR laws are making Australians work harder, longer and for less money," said Ms Burrow.
Penalty rates traded away for coffee and a cheap muffin
Minister Joe Hockey needs to also clarify whether junior staff at coffee shops will be allowed to trade away penalty rates for working on weekends in return for a free drink and discounts on food under the Government's new 'fairness test'.
A media report reveals today that young workers at a Gloria Jeans coffee shop are being paid a flat rate of $8.37 an hour with no extra pay for weekends - $6.60 an hour less than the minimum award rate for work on Sundays.
The staff receive 'one free drink per five hour shift and a 25% discount on any display food' to make up for the low pay. (Sydney Morning Herald, 30/5/2007)
"The Minister needs to now decide whether a free coffee and a cheap muffin is sufficient compensation for the loss of penalty rates under the new 'fairness test'," said Ms Burrow.
ACTU Media
30 May 2007
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