Calls to scrap penalty rates/leave loading rejected

Productivity and Labour Relations Minister Yvonne Henderson has rejected calls by the Small Business Coalition to scrap penalty rates and holiday leave loading.

"The Small Business Coalition's approach rests on the notion of simply taking away conditions and reducing the wages of Australian workers," Mrs Henderson said.

"Australia will become more competitive internationally by implementing changes in the workplace that make us more productive.

"Consultation and co-operative approaches to work organisation will ensure that workers and management can identify and work towards common goals.

"The Small Business Coalition's narrow approach is discredited."

The Minister rejected the Small Business Coalition's call to the Federal Government to deregulate industrial relations, including removing the shift allowance and the 17.5 per cent leave loading.

"Workers in every other OECD country receive penalty rates for unsociable hours and some form of loading for annual leave," Mrs Henderson said.

"In fact, Australia's standard of 17.5 per cent leave loading is not exceptional when compared with leave loadings payable to many workers in the advanced countries of Western Europe.

"The Small Business Coalition's unimaginative approach to solving Australia's problems and improving its place in the world economy will simply guarantee low workplace morale, high levels of disputation and lost time through industrial action, and consequently low levels of productivity."