Media Release: RETAIL AND HOSPITALITY: KEY CASUALTIES OF WORKCHOICES

FROM THE MINISTER FOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

DATE: Monday, November 19, 2007

RETAIL AND HOSPITALITY: KEY CASUALTIES OF WORKCHOICES

A new report into the impact of WorkChoices on the retail and hospitality industries reveals vulnerable workers fearing the sack and suffering a decline in wages relative to other industries in Victoria.

Deputy Premier and Industrial Relations Minister Rob Hulls, who launched the report by the Victorian Workplace Rights Advocate, said it showed retail and hospitality employers and employees giving WorkChoices the thumbs down.

“Despite Federal Government claims that WorkChoices would stimulate job creation, this report finds no evidence of a jobs boom caused by WorkChoices,” Mr Hulls said.

“This is yet another independent report exposing WorkChoices as a blunt instrument designed to cut the wages and conditions of working families who are battling with rising interest rates and petrol prices. It also makes a mockery of John Howard’s promise of ‘more pay, better jobs’.

“The report finds that WorkChoices has presided over a fall in wages of up to 1.3 per cent in retail and hospitality compared to average wage rises across all other Victorian industries.

“It also shows many employees suffering substantial cuts to their pay and conditions due to the use of ‘template’ Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs). This is outrageous in a civilised country suffering from skills shortages and experiencing record growth.

“While workers employed under awards have low basic wages, they still enjoy a range of penalty rates, loadings and allowances. They also retain substantial controls over their working hours and duties.

“But the use of AWAs means that retail and hospitality workers are increasingly being subjected to low basic rates of pay compounded by the abolition of all penalty rates, loadings and allowances. Those on AWAs are also losing control over working hours and duties.”

The retail and hospitality industries predominantly employ young, female and casual workers in small to medium sized businesses that now escape unfair dismissal laws under WorkChoices.

The report contains data from the Workplace Rights Advocate’s hotline and industry focus groups which reveal that employees in retail and hospitality are deeply concerned about job security and being underpaid.

A survey of 400 employers in those industries by UMR Research also shows most businesses do not believe WorkChoices is fair or simple.

“Many businesses are not aware of their obligations under WorkChoices’ confusing array of ambiguous and complex regulations,” Mr Hulls said.

“Employers have become so contemptuous of WorkChoices that well over half of those surveyed were happier under the award system. For them, WorkChoices is a burden of red tape and complexity. For their employees, it is a sinister system for cutting wages and conditions.”