Education & Work Weekend penalty rates

It's a perception that they will. They need a hell of a lot more turnover to cover that cost. Will they get it? There is no guarantee. Hopefully they will, and it might transfer into more staff; more jobs.

But; that's the Boss' prerogative, and the alternative is no or less business and fewer jobs.

For some industries it will definitely be a benefit to the Boss, for sure. But; see above. Don't begrudge the Boss - no Boss making money; no workers.

But for the ones who are currently closed, or who are considering closing; no.

All it will mean is they will have a possible incentive to stay open as per the normal trading days.

For those who are currently open; many have reduced staff levels, and/or use permanent/full-time Staff to keep the costs down when ever possible.

The knock-on effect is that there are less people who can actually work on those days.

For example; XYZ doodad Co opens on Sat and Sun, and due to penalty rates employes 3 permanent staff for the day.

There are no casuals employed on Sundays, so they cannot pick up extra work/dollars at XYZ.

But, let's assume the entire weekend penalty rate was removed (keep in mind I support the penalty rates and let the Boss decide to be open or not).

Now the permanent staff probably won't want to work those days due to decrease in hourly rate. Fair enough...they go back to only Mon-Fri.

So now XYZ can give the casuals (if they have any) some extra work on those days if they wish, and/or XYZ can employ casuals and allow them to fill those shifts on those days.

More workers, same amount of hours available for work. Everyone wins - except the worker who has the enjoyment of the extra pay on the weekend.

But; the alternative is the business closes on those days, and they lose the work anyway, and the casuals are still out of work.

 

What a load of waffle. The business doesn't have to pay full time/permanent staff penalty rates?

The business operates on less staff during penalty periods? Why don't they operate on less staff in non-penalty times? Is out of the goodness of their heart?

Big retail or hospitality businesses open on Sundays because it is profitable to do so. They just want more profits by not paying penalties.

 

I never said that businesses don't pay weekend penalty rates; I think you might have misread my post?

Some will operate on less staff during penalty periods where they are able to cut wage costs. Some will have to bring in more to handle the extra traffic. Some will have no choice but to be open and do that.

I would imagine the non-penalty rates days would have a different staff level again; dependent on how busy they are. In my Proshop businesses, for eg; we had a number of varying traffic days through the week, and we tried to staff them accordingly. The weekends were busier, but the wage bill was much higher; not a lot of extras profit as a result. I had no choice but to be open though.

again, I don't begrudge a business that. It's the reward for being a business owner, and the reward for sacrificing weekend time.

But we all assume the profits are greater - often they are not. More heads does not automatically translate to bigger profits. The penalty rates will chop into a lot of it.

This is why so many of them are now considering this option to close down on those days.

But, as I said; I support penalty rates; let the Boss decide to trim staff/close the doors, or stay open if the place is making more.

 

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/fed...-as-shorten-surges-ahead-20150807-giuivw.html

Tucked away at the end of this story is a polling question about overtime. Was quite suprised only a slim majority oppose changing the existing overtime arrangements. I think unless the Labor party implodes, the government wont have the ticker to propose any significant industrial relations changes (including O/T arrangements).

 

As society moves to secular, there should be no such thing as a sabbath or religious holiday perks.
That means weekends, xmas and easter are just normal days on the calendar.

 

With very high sick leave.

 

In the case of nursing (my wife is one) many nurses will still do those hours despite a change of rate, but many won't, so for that industry it is a problem looming - less staff; less beds available.

I rent houses to 14 nurses, all from O/S there is no problem attracting the best nurses from around the world including USA, UK and UAE, they cant believe how much money they get paid and how they are able to save money or that after being here a few weeks they are able to buy a brand new car. They think it is crazy what they get paid.

 

This is also a "gravy train" hangover from the Aus glory days, which is one of the costs that have ultimately sealed the fate of many a manufacturer business and middle-management business, and overall volumes of small business employees being decreased.

For eg; nurses in the USA get 2 weeks annual leave per year. They can take sickies out of that leave, but I saw first hand a few nurses "written up" by their Bosses where my wife worked; for taking a few too many sickies in a short period of time...very frowned upon.

Sickies are rorted in Aus, and employees think it is a real hoot, but we are now seeing that the last laugh is on us - higher unemployment, lots of full-time permanent jobs being replaced with part-time and casual hours, 437 Visa workers and so on.

 

Can't see it ever happening, these are more commercial holidays than religious these days. Even Anzac day is commercial now, would that be a normal day? Australia day?

 

They won't be if no one wants to work for them on that day

 

The other side of that coin is;

Currently, all the "cream" shifts on weekends are extremely hard to get (because of the pay rates).

If this was to change, a lot of those folks who have snared these shifts as their own will possibly give them up.

Many will still do them because they still need the dough, and it suits their lives to work on weekends opposite husband/wife for childcare purposes. Needless to say; these folks will be ****** about the rate change.

But, there are also a lot of folks who would do the shift who don't necessarily care about a 9-5 life, and if these shifts open up (albeit at a lower rate; but still above normal) they would put their hand up.....happy to get 1.5 times rather than 2.5 times the normal rate.

 

Hard workers would do them at normal rates if that was the rules, as diligent people are always trying to get ahead. Given the populace on these forums, that should be a no brainer. Suddenly small biz can afford to operate, consumers get more choices, biz of all sizes strives to be more efficient, and presto economy uplift.

 

Sounds like a rosy view, do you really think a 16 year old is going to be in a hurry to get out of bed on early on a Sunday morning for normal rates? Any age actually.
Businesses of all sizes should already be striving to be more efficient, not sure why removing penalty rates would make them more likely to do it then. Could make them more lackadaisical knowing they were paying less in wages.

 

That's because the people you know are lazy.

Those places hire kids because they're cheaper, paying them say $16 x 2 penalty. There's diligent people who, for example adults who already have a Mon-Fri gig trying to get 1st home deposit together who'd take the say $23 normal rate to get ahead.

 

I can tell you from experience that in the hospitality and retail industry there are lots of people who are not reliant on having to work the week end shifts do so because of the extra $$ the loading brings them. These types of employees will simply stop working as the basic hourly rate is not worth it to them.

Yes there will be some who need to work and will take on whatever is offered, but a reduction in the number of staff will have an impact on businesses.

 

That's an odd response to that question.

 

That might be the case in your particular retail job, but keep in mind that's not every job.
There are plenty of M-F jobs still available in retail and service jobs, with other positions filling the out of 'normal' business hours.

 

There is an impact on the business already due to the Sunday rate; hence many of them are considering closing or are already closed.

Fortunately, there are many who will still persist for the time being, but I think the writing is now on the wall for this particular day's rate.

I can't see why Sundays and Pub Hols should be 2.5 times, while Sat is 1.5 times. Doesn't make sense; why is Sunday such a big deal?