The ACTU has received 500 personal submissions from Australian workers worried about what the Productivity Commission inquiry into workplace relations will mean for their job security, wages and rights at work.
The ACTU will be incorporating the concerns and experiences of these workers into its submission to the inquiry.
Submissions for most organisations close today.
Unsurprisingly, employers are calling for penalty rates and rights at work to be cut in submissions that have already been lodged by business lobby groups from the tourism and hairdressing industries.
The ACTU will fight any move to cut the minimum wage, penalty rates and rights at work.
Quotes attributable to ACTU President Ged Kearney:
“Australian workers are worried about their job security and their rights at work.
“There are millions of Australians who cannot afford the sudden pay cut that will come with having their penalty rates or the minimum wage cut.
“Penalty rates are part of take home wages that hard working Australians rely on to pay their rent or mortgage and put food on the table.
“If you cut people’s wages, they have less money to spend in shops, pharmacies and cafes – the very businesses that are driving this attack.
“Millions of Australians sacrifice their weekends, nights and public holidays away from family and friends to work and they should be paid for that.
“Cutting penalty rates or the minimum wage has nothing to do with job creation or productivity – it is about cutting people’s pay packets.
“The Coalition Government is using the Productivity Commission inquiry into rights at work in an attempt to cut penalty rates, abolish the minimum wage, bring back unfair individual contracts and swing even more power to the employers.”
Media contact: Kara Douglas, 0418 793 885 or Carla De Campo 0410 579 575
