Labor to protect penalty rates in law

A Shorten Labor government would restore penalty rates to hundreds of thousands of workers set to have them cut on July 1.

Bill Shorten has vowed to restore the Sunday penalty rates of every worker affected by the July 1 cuts.

Hundreds of thousands of Australia's lowest paid workers in the hospital, retail and fast food industries will start to see their weekend penalty rates cut from next week, under a decision of the independent Fair Work Commission.

The opposition leader told an ACTU conference in Sydney on Tuesday a Labor government would change the law to protect the take-home pay of workers.

"I promise you this: a new Labor government will restore the Sunday penalty rates of every single worker affected by this cut," Mr Shorten said.

Mr Shorten contrasted the cut with the tax break to be given by the Turnbull government to the highest income earners from July 1, following the axing of the "deficit levy".

The government argues the penalty rates decision was made independently and the minimum wage is due to rise by 3.3 per cent on July 1.


Share
1 min read

Published

Source: AAP


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world