In Anti-Poverty week, business peak bodies continue to cry in unison for relief for small business bosses who groan that if it were not for penalty rates all would be right with the world.
However the truth that I have learnt from a wage earning life in small businesses as a cook, is that many of us did not then, and still do not now, get paid penalty rates. The wage scandals of 7/11, and the fruit-picking industry are just two fine examples of the daily swindles and indignities that beset many of us at work, and especially those of us who do not have any organised voice.
As a full-time wage-earning adult I had to help raise a child and pay the rent on less than $45K a year. Often that gross did not deliver equivalent benefits, such as super contributions, because of “inventive” pay arrangements. Many family-owned businesses do cash payments off the books. Many students running between studies and work are forced into dodgy deals because of their precarious budget juggle. A ghost has no protection and does not get compo. I learnt my lesson and I want to prevent my daughter having to do so.
Most threatened by big business’ wage cutting campaign are those of us on $40K or less. Penalty rates can make a difference of up to $100 a week more. Big business knows that a local cafe owner crying poor, supposedly because of the penalty rates that they rarely pay, plays more easily to our emotions and creates confusion. Far better media than workers in casinos full of high rollers, or the emergency services and nurses for that matter, having their penalties cut. What they want is a precedent set and we must stop it. And continue, convincing each other that we can make a more equitable Australia.
Peter Curtis, CLA member, Waramanga ACT (Letters, Canberra Times, 151015)