Penalty rates to hit jobs
Thousand of jobs will be axed and consumers face higher grocery prices and a cutback in shopping hours under sweeping changes to workplace laws.
Despite forecast unemployment of 8.5 per cent, retailers and pharmacists will have to pay millions of dollars in extra overtime from next year.
And they are wanting the Rudd Government to take action, warning that young people and female workers will be the biggest casualties in the employment cull.
The retail sector claims its wages bill will rise by well above $100 million a year. Pharmacists have warned their payroll costs will rise by 22 per cent.
Two of Australia’s biggest employers - Woolworths and Coles - say that as many as 5000 jobs are on the line.
The threat of job losses is a direct challenge for the Rudd Government which has championed the rollback of John Howard’s unpopular WorkChoices laws.
Labor won the election with a strong commitment to introduce worker-friendly industrial laws. But these new industrial awards, which come into effect from January 1, will also force bosses to pay higher penalty rates.
Confidential modelling by the retailers shows the added wages burden will be massive across the country.
In NSW alone, extra overtime payments are forecast to hit $75 million.
Despite the recession, the Industrial Relations Commission has outlined new award conditions for millions of workers.
This so-called award modernisation has cut the number of awards to just 11 nationally. But it also requires retailers to pay double time on Sundays—compared with the current model of time-and-a-half in most states.
The retail sector has been a standout during the economic meltdown with Coles, Woolworths, Target and other big stores winning big time from Mr Rudd’s cash splash.
But they are about to lash out at the Government’s industrial reforms. Australian National Retailers Association CEO Margy Osmond said the wages hike will have a “fairly dramatic’’ impact on smaller retailers.
It will also “severely curtail’’ the capacity of big retailers to create new jobs, she said.
Business is seeking a two-year moratorium on any wages increase and warns the additional salary costs are likely to be passed on to consumers through higher grocery prices.
