Abstract:
In developments that have employer groups and industry peak bodies looking on with enthusiasm, and hospitality, retail and healthcare workers and their unions looking on with concern, penalty rates are facing an uncertain future. Employment Minister Eric Abetz maintains that industrial-relations reform is off the table until at least the next federal election. But why do his reassurances ring hollow? Because the Productivity Commission’s review of IR legislation, currently under way, is reported to be the most sweeping in a generation. And also because of Tony Abbott’s comments on national radio: ‘If you don’t want to work on a weekend, fair enough, don’t work on a weekend. But if you do want to work on a weekend, and lots of people, particularly students, particularly young people, want to work on a weekend, you want the places to be open to provide jobs’.
Details / PDF:
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