 Found a word you're not familiar with? Double-click that word to bring up a dictionary reference to it. The dictionary page includes an audio sound file with which to actually hear the word said. |
Further implications
The South Australian Shop, Distributive and Allied Employee Association has arrived at a groundbreaking agreement with Business SA to slash weekend penalty rates, in exchange for a higher base rate of pay.
The agreement, which is voluntary, is being held up as a template by some other employer groups. Others are far less satisfied.
The 'template agreement' allows for the reduction of penalty rates on Sundays from a 100 percent loading to a 50 percent loading. It also reduces loadings on public holidays from 150 percent to 100 percent.
Also under the agreement, penalty rates would be abolished on Saturdays as would overtime rates on weekday evenings. In return, the agreement gives workers a guaranteed three percent annual pay rise and the right to refuse to work on the weekend.
If adopted widely the agreement would affect up to 40,000 employees.
The agreement replicates many similar arrangements arrived at with smaller unions. Not all employer groups have seen it as a boon and many are looking for a more definitive action against penalty rates.
This agreement, if it were to become widespread, might act against the casualisation of the workforce. It reduces the incentive for employees to take up weekend work and makes it relatively more attractive to work standard hours. Those working standard weekdays have acquired a guaranteed, on-going pay rise without the need to work 'unsociable' hours. This is likely to result in only those for whom weekend work is a genuinely preferred option taking it up.
This is a quite different arrangement from that which has been promoted by employer groups over the last several years. The arrangement they have been seeking to have accepted and made law seeks to replace the above penalty rates with a penalty rate that only operates if an employee is required to work on more than five consecutive days. This would mean that employees need never be offered penalty rates. All an employer would need to do is ensure that no employee works more than five days in a row. Such an arrangement would clearly be far cheaper for an employer as it comes with no requirement that there be an on-going base pay rise.