Workers Make Penalty Rates a Key Election Issue

Thanks to SDA and other union members, the spotlight on penalty rates in the lead up to the Federal Election campaign shone bright and wide.

Many hundreds of SDA members and supporters emailed and visited their local candidates throughout the election campaign to tell them how important penalty rates are, and to ask them where they stood on the issue.

As a result, there were plenty of unsupportive candidates licking their wounds once the final votes were counted, knowing that their refusal to stand up for the take- home pay of workers is part of the reason they won’t be heading back to Canberra this year.

Protect Penalty Rates supporters hit the polling booths on Election Day to help inform voters about the importance of protecting the take- home pay of workers as they cast their all-important vote.

For the Turnbull Government, the result was a near disaster with the loss of 14 seats and a national swing against them of 3.38%. While the Turnbull Government may have just hung on, the message was loud and clear – Australians are passionate about protecting penalty rates.

SDA National Secretary, Gerard Dwyer said the Turnbull Government’s refusal to stand up for the penalty rates of workers clearly hurt them.

“The ALP put a submission into the Fair Work Commission in support of penalty rates and will ask them to review the decision if they decide to cut penalty rates.

“The Coalition has steadfastly refused to stand up for hardworking Australians, and will stand by and do nothing if penalty rates are stripped away by the Fair Work Commission’s decision,” Mr Dwyer said.

“We know that many Coalition MPs have been very vocal about their desire to cut penalty rates and that’s clearly come back to bite them.

“There’s no doubt that protecting penalty rates is very important to Australians and will continue to be.

“If penalty rates are cut in any way, some of the most vulnerable people in Australia will struggle to make ends meet. The broader community understands that.

“Unfortunately for those relying on penalty rates, the Liberal Party was the one major political party that didn’t stand up to protect penalty rates.

“For workers, the Federal Election result means we’ve got a lot of work to do to ensure that the take- home pay of workers is protected.

“We’ll be in touch soon with more information on action you can take to help protect our penalty rates.”

At the time of writing, the decision from the Fair Work Commission on whether to cut Sunday penalty rates for hospitality and retail workers is still pending. Stay tuned for further updates.

 

HOW CAN YOU HELP PROTECT PENALTY RATES?


  1. Sign up to the SDA’s protectpenaltyrates.org.au campaign website.
  2. Ask your family and friends to sign up too – the more supporters we have, the louder our voice will be.
  3. Like the Protect Penalty Rates Facebook page at www.facebook.com/protectpenaltyrates/
  4. Stay tuned to the campaign and take part in the latest actions.
 

Together, we can protect our penalty rates. Join the campaign at protectpenaltyrates.org.au