General news

The government’s election commitment to legislate penalty rates came after employer groups moved to strip them from the Banking, Finance and Insurance (BFI) Award – the award that establishes our minimum employment terms and conditions – in favour of an ‘exemption rate’ clause that would apply to employees earning over a certain amount.  

In short, employers wanted to pay employees an annualised salary (a flat rate), replacing things like penalty rates, allowances, overtime and annual leave loading. 

Our very own FSU National Assistant Secretary Nicole McPherson gave evidence at a Senate committee for the proposed legislation, arguing the move from employer groups had made it necessary to enshrine penalty rates in law to protect workers. 

“We currently have a fairly substantial problem with annualised salaries and employers not doing the reconciliations required under those existing annualised salary arrangements, and we deal with that as an enforcement issue,” Nicole said. 

“However, without these laws – and if banks no longer have any requirement to keep records of how many hours people are working – it would be impossible for us to do that enforcement work.” 

You can read the FSU’s full submission here. 

Today’s provisions passed by the Federal Government will safeguard penalty and overtime rates, and mean large employer lobby groups can no longer seek to win these “exemption rate” clauses in modern awards. 

‘Making ends meet’ 

2.6 million Australians on modern Awards rely on penalty rates to make ends meet. 

FSU member Sandy Boudette was one of those workers. She bravely fronted national media during the federal election when the Federal Government announced its commitment to enshrine penalty rates into law. 

Sandy said penalty rates had been a crucial factor in providing for her family over many years.   

“Raising a family as a single mum, I was able to support them through their education, keep a roof over their head, food on the table – and much of my income was propped up by my penalty rates.  

“My colleagues are now facing a similar situation where they rely heavily on their penalty rates to make ends meet.  

“They’re working weekends and evenings to get that extra money to provide a comfortable life for their kids and themselves.  

“The Labor Government’s commitment to enshrine penalty rates into law will mean so much, namely that our penalty rates will be safe from future attacks.  

“It will give workers that extra peace of mind that we can still rely on our penalty rates to keep us financially more secure.” 

The passing of these laws today is a terrific win for union members – it will ensure our penalty rates cannot be eroded away or traded off by employers seeking to leave workers worse off.