Cafe Cutbacks

THE weekend has long been viewed as a special time for every Australian but a motion by the NSW Business Chamber would see this change for café staff.

The Chamber has unveiled plans to cut weekend penalty rates unless the staff member is working for their sixth consecutive day. Chamber chief executive Stephen Cartwright says that the current arrangement is costing business too much to stay open on the weekends.

“The Federal Government’s inflexible approach to workplace regulation is slowly strangling the life out of small businesses,” he said.

This plan has caused outrage amongst the unions with the NSW Unions Secretary Mark Lennon saying, that the proposed plan would be against Australia’s principles.

“There is a settled view in Australia that the weekend should be protected as a special time to relax with friends and family.”

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive John Hart said penalty rates were also pricing restaurants out of the market and threatening the employment prospects of workers.

Words by Thom Farquhar

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 at 1:15 pm. It is filed under Just In. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.