At 2:30 am on the morning of Wednesday 23 March the Liberal and National Parties rushed through the Legislative Council a law to open shops on Easter Sunday.
The law has now passed through both Houses of Parliament. It is expected to come into effect next week.
This means shops will be open on Easter Sunday this year.
The Liberal and National Parties did this over the objections of the SDA and over the objections of a number of Church groups and with no serious consultation.
The law was strongly opposed by the ALP and the Greens. They stood up for the rights of employees.
The ALP moved two amendments
1. To make work on Easter Sunday voluntary
2. To make Easter Sunday a public holiday (employees would be entitled to public holiday penalty rates)
The ALP and the Greens spoke in favour of the amendments and voted for them.
The Liberal and National Parties voted against both amendments.
In fact the Liberal and National Parties voted to refuse to allow the matter of making Easter Sunday a public holiday to even be debated by the Legislative Council. Incredibly, they argued that the matter of making Easter Sunday a public holiday had nothing to do with opening shops on Easter Sunday!
Because the Liberal and National Parties have a majority in the Legislative Council both amendments by the ALP were lost.
Bulletins about entitlements over Easter are in the process of being mailed out to Delegates and are on the SDA website (www.sdavic.org).
Any member who is pressured or intimidated to work on Easter Sunday should contact the SDA immediately and we will take it up for you.
Members should remember which political parties voted to strip away their Easter break.
We will continue the campaign to make Easter Sunday a public holiday to ensure justice for employees.
To find out about your Easter/ANZAC Day entitlements, click here or go to Wages & Conditions then on to Document Search. You can also ring the SDA Office and speak to our Information Officers.