This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/oct/11/unions-lose-appeal-to-overturn-cuts-to-sunday-penalty-rates
The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Unions lose appeal to overturn cuts to Sunday penalty rates | Unions lose appeal to overturn cuts to Sunday penalty rates |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Unions have lost a challenge to overturn cuts to Sunday penalty rates. | Unions have lost a challenge to overturn cuts to Sunday penalty rates. |
| United Voice and the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association had challenged the Fair Work Commission’s decision to cut penalty rate cuts in the hospitality and retail award, which applied from 1 July and will be phased in over three years. | United Voice and the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association had challenged the Fair Work Commission’s decision to cut penalty rate cuts in the hospitality and retail award, which applied from 1 July and will be phased in over three years. |
| The Fair Work Commission, in a ruling in February, argued the Sunday and public holiday rates no longer provided a “fair and relevant” minimum safety net. | The Fair Work Commission, in a ruling in February, argued the Sunday and public holiday rates no longer provided a “fair and relevant” minimum safety net. |
| The commission instead chose to make cuts of 25% to 50% points in the retail, pharmacy, fast food and hospitality industries. It argued the cuts would help to boost employment in the industry. | |
| But the decision prompted a furious response from Labor and the unions, which feared it could set a precedent for cuts in other industries. | |
| The decision was thought to affect 500,000 people a year. Unions alleged workers would lose up to $6,000 a year, although the cuts varied across industries. | |
| The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, called the decision “appalling”, saying it came a time when wages were falling in real terms | |
| The Federal Court has rejected union challenges to overturn the decision to cut #penaltyrates for hospitality, retail and fast-food workers. The system is broken. It’s time to change the rules. #auspol #ausunions pic.twitter.com/AqTiIEPwKy | |
| The court heard the case late last month but was restricted to only scrutinising the commission’s decision-making process, rather than the merits of the decision itself. | |
| The unions had argued that the commission’s had “misconstrued its powers” by varying the awards without being satisfied that a “material change in circumstances” meant the award no longer met the “modern awards objective”. | |
| The unions also argued the commission had ignored the relative living standards and needs of Australia’s low-paid workers, and had misconstrued the word “relevant” in its use of the phrase “fair and relevant safety net”. | |
| The court rejected all of the unions’ arguments. The court’s decision was handed down on Wednesday morning by federal court justices Anthony North, Richard Tracey, Geoffrey Flick, Jayne Jagot and Mordecai Bromberg. |