AUSTRALIANS LOSE MORE THAN EVER IN 2020 UNDER MORRISON’S NEW PENALTY RATE CUTS

Australians working on the New Year’s Day public holiday in 2020 will be worse off than ever before due to the Prime Minister’s cuts to penalty rates, which come into full effect this year.
 
Around 700,000 low paid workers in retail, fast food, hospitality and pharmacy will be paid less this New Year’s Day than they were on New Year’s Day in 2019 – making it harder for them to pay their rent, cover their bills and look after their families.

Penalty rates are not a luxury – they help people put food on the table and petrol in the car. They can make the difference for people struggling to pay the electricity bill, the private health insurance premiums or child care costs – all of which keep soaring under this Government.
 
This latest 10 to 15 per cent cut to penalty rates signed off on by Scott Morrison means many workers will lose thousands of dollars from their pay packets in 2020.

Some workers will be up to $26,000 worse off by the time these cuts are fully implemented on July 1 of 2020. All up, workers will lose an estimated $2.9 billion.

And yet there is no evidence that these cuts have produced any jobs, like Scott Morrison promised they would.

Even the Council of Small Business admits these jobs have not materialised.

If this tired third-term Government wants to stimulate the economy the last thing it should be doing is standing idly by while people’s wages are cut.

Sadly this is what we have come to expect from a Government that admits low wages are a deliberate design feature of its economic policies and a PM who has voted eight times against restoring penalty rates.
 
If Scott Morrison cared about people’s wages and conditions he would also abandon his anti-worker union-bashing legislation - which will weaken the organisations that fight for pay rises
   
WEDNESDAY, 1 JANUARY 2020

Tony Burke