Labor’s empty support for penalty rates exposed

The platform of the Australian Labor Party – what it calls its “positive policies” – has the protection of penalty rates front and centre. This makes sense. The ALP purports to hold the interests of workers at its core, and penalty rates matter to plenty of those workers.

According to the Australian Council of Trades Unions, more than 4 million people would be affected by an attack on penalty rates, including nurses, emergency services workers and retail and hospitality staff.

Against the backdrop of a campaign to slash Sunday rates, polls consistently show overwhelming support – between 70 and 80 percent – for the retention of penalties. Labor is swimming with the tide on this issue.

The Liberal government could hardly have picked a worse time to make its case to start eroding these rates. Throughout 2015 and into 2016, very public investigations have revealed that countless businesses, large and small, already refuse to pay their workers the legal minimums, including penalty rates.

With the Fair Work Commission’s ruling on weekend penalty rates set to be handed down within months and widespread support for their retention, surely Bill Shorten would jump at any opportunity to reaffirm Labor’s support for workers? Apparently not.

Asked on Melbourne radio if he would accept a Fair Work Commission decision to cut penalty rates, Shorten’s “Yes” was unequivocal. He flatly ruled out the idea of introducing legislation to protect penalty rates. In other words, if Labor wins the federal election, it is promising to do nothing to protect penalty rates. Zilch. Nada.

For the unions whose members stand to lose if penalty rates are cut, there could be no starker reminder that cheerleading for this party is no strategy to protect workers’ rights.