Download PDFM E D I A R E L E A S E
Stephen Smith MP Shadow Minister for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations Member for Perth
44/06 24 May 2006
WORKCHOICES: A CHOICE BETWEEN LOWER PAY OR NO JOB
A major assault on the wages and working conditions of Australian employees has been launched using the Work Choices legislation.
Spotlight, a major national retailer, is using the Howard Government’s industrial relations changes to cut the take home pay and slash the working conditions of their new employees.
New Spotlight employees are being offered an Australian Workplace Agreement (AWA) that contains:
⢠no provision for any penalty rates ⢠no provision for any overtime
In compensation for drastically reduced wages and working conditions Spotlight is offering their new employees compensation of 2 cents an hour.
Under the new AWA a full time adult employee who works a roster including late night shopping and weekend work is paid around $90 a week less than a fellow employee on the existing Award.
Other wages and working conditions slashed under the new Spotlight AWA include the elimination of paid rest breaks, breaks between shifts, maximum and minimum shift lengths, and a cap on the number of consecutive days worked.
In Question Time this afternoon the Treasurer defended this attack on wages and working conditions by claiming Australia needs more flexible workplace arrangements, and people were protected by the Government’s so called minimum standards.
Unfortunately for Australian workers under the Howard Government’s extreme new industrial relations legislation flexibility is an extremely painful one way street. It’s down.
They get their wages slashed, they lose weekends and public holidays pay loadings, and paid meal breaks and in return they get the princely sum of 2 cents an hour.
And it’s all consistent with the Government’s so called minimum standards. It’s the law.
The Howard Government wants to send Australia down a low wage, low skilled road, as if somehow that will help us compete in the global economy.
The wage slashing Spotlight AWA is a major step on that extreme and unfair Liberal Party ideological journey.
SPOTLIGHT AWA v SHOP EMPLOYEES (STATE) AWARD NSW
Entitlement (Full time employee) Shop Employees (State) Award NSW
Spotlight AWA
Base Rate of Pay $14.28 per hour $14.30 per hour
Saturday Penalty Rate 125% = $17.85 per hour $14.30 per hour
Sunday Penalty Rate 150% = $21.42 per hour $14.30 per hour
Public Holiday Penalty Rate 250% = $35.70 per hour $14.30 per hour
Overtime 150% for first two hours
= $21.42 per hour
200% for all other hours = $28.56 per hour
No overtime
Rest Breaks Paid 10 minute break No paid rest break
Ordinary Hours 7am - 6pm Mon-Wed
7am - 9pm Thurs-Fri
7am - 6pm Saturday
8am - 5pm Sunday
All hours worked are ordinary hours
Annual leave loading 17.5% No leave loading
Roster Protections Guaranteed RDOs
No more than 5 days work per week (or 6 in one week and 4 the next)
At least 10 hours break between shifts
No RDOs
No restriction on the amount of consecutive days worked without a break
No minimum break between shifts
First Aid Allowance $1.54 per day No allowance
Meal Allowance $10.80 per meal No allowance
Uniform Allowance $8.80 per week No allowance
Part Time Employees Maximum 30 hours per week Can be required to work over 38 hours per week
SPOTLIGHT AWA MEETS GOVERNMENT’S LEGISLATED MINIMUM STANDARD
Standard Work Choices website www.workchoices.gov.au Spotlight AWA Government’s Legislated
Minimum Standard Met?
Maximum ordinary hours of work
The Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard (the Standard) provides that a person cannot be required or requested to work more than 38 ordinary hours per week, plus reasonable additional hours.
Clause 8 - Hours of Work
8.1 You are required to work a maximum of 38 hours per week averaged over a 6 week cycle.
8.2 In addition you are expected to work any hours that are reasonably required for you to satisfactorily perform your duties. This will require work outside of your normal working hours and/or normal working days and on public holidays.
YES
Annual leave
Full-time employees accrue the equivalent of four weeks of paid annual leave each year. Part-time employees accrue paid annual leave on a pro-rata basis. Annual leave accrues for each completed four week period of continuous service.
Clause 10 - Annual Leave
10.1 If you are a full time or part time employee, then for every 4 weeks of continuous service, you will accrue annual leave of 1/13 of the number of ordinary hours you worked for us during that 4 week period.
10.2 Annual leave is cumulative from year to year.
YES
Parental leave The Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard (the
Standard) provides for a
Clause 13 - Parental leave
YES
maximum of 52 weeks of unpaid parental leave, shared between both parents at the time of the birth of a child, or the adoption of a child under five years of age. Parental leave can be taken as maternity, paternity or adoption leave.
13.1 You are entitled to receive parental leave in accordance with the Part VA of Division 6 of the Workplace Relations Amendment (WorkChoices) Act 2006.
Minimum wage $12.75 minimum wage Work Choices
($14.28 under Shop Employees (State) Award NSW)
$14.30 offered to AWA employees
YES
Standard Work Choices website www.workchoices.gov.au Spotlight AWA Government’s Legislated
Minimum Standard Met?
Personal and carers leave
Under WorkChoices eligible employees are entitled to:
⢠ten days of paid personal/carer’s leave per year (including sick leave and carer’s leave);
⢠two days of unpaid carer’s leave per occasion; and
⢠two days of paid compassionate leave per occasion.
Clause 11 - Personal Leave 11.2 If you are a full-time or part-time
employee, you will accrue an amount of paid personal leave for each completed 4 weeks of continuous service with the company, of 1/26 of the number of ordinary hours that you worked for the company during that 4 week period. In any 12-month period you may take paid personal leave up to a total of 1/26 of the ordinary hours you worked for the company during that 12-month period.
11.5 If you are a casual employee or you do not have any paid carer’s leave accrued, you are entitled to a period of up to 2 days unpaid carer’s leave on each occasion referred to in clause 11.1(b).
11.8 Provided you have sufficient accrued personal leave, you are entitled to take 10 days of carers leave in each year. Any such leave taken shall be deducted from your accumulated personal leave entitlements. Carers leave that is not
YES
YES
YES
taken in a year will not carry over to the next year, but will not be deducted from your overall accrued personal leave entitlement which will continue to accumulate from year to year.
Clause 12 - Compassionate Leave
12.2 You will be entitled to 2 days of compassionate leave on each occasion that a member of your immediate family or household: (a) contracts a
personal illness or injury that poses a serious threat to that person’s life; or (b) dies.