We all want to see more jobs created locally. Unfortunately, the decision to cut penalty rates for hospitality, retail, fastfood and pharmacy workers is looking like it will become a textbook case of “unintended consequences”, where something designed to boost employment ends up hurting local businesses and jobs.
It’s been widely reported that the Federal Government is supporting the Fair Work Commission’s move to cut Sunday, public holiday and late night penalty rates. What they don’t seem to understand is that not only will this money come out of the pockets of families who are already working Sundays and night shifts to make ends meet, but each dollar taken from our workers is a dollar the Hawkesbury economy will not see.
The weekly pay cut is up to $77 for around 10,500 workers in this electorate of Macquarie; which means, $800,000 less to spend every week. And that equals $42 million in a year in Macquarie alone.
Lowering people’s incomes won’t lower the cost of living: rent won’t get cheaper, groceries won’t cost less, and electricity bills certainly won’t go down.
The people being paid less will have less disposable income to spend in restaurants, cafes, beauty salons or homewares and clothing shops. This is where our local businesses will begin to hurt.
And while this decision affects a small number of awards, there are already new reviews planned to cut penalty rates for hairdressers, aged care workers, café workers, restaurant staff and workers in registered clubs.
Our communities will suffer socially and economically if penalty rates are cut, but it isn’t too late to turn this decision around.
If you would are going to be impacted by the cut to penalty rates as either an individual or as a business and want to do something about it, please get into contact with my office:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 1300 519 482 or (02) 4573 8222
