The National Union of Students is outraged by this morning’s decision by the Fair Work Commission to gut essential penalty rates from workers.
This decision comes in a long string of attacks to the most vulnerable in our community. The Liberals love putting holes in our safety net by going after income support, pensions, education and now working families.
“Workers and working families rely desperately on penalty rates to simply meet the exorbitant costs-of-living that are only going up and up.” said NUS President, Sophie Johnston.
The National Union of Students claims students will be some of the hardest hit by these changes as students predominantly work in hospitality and retail roles.
“Many students, particularly those who study full-time, have no other choice than to work weekends to meet the outrageously high cost-of-living,
“Centrelink is broken and underfunded; education programs are being gutted,” Johnston said “That meant access to penalty rates was the difference between staying afloat and sinking well below the poverty line.”
NUS believes the proposed changes will cost individuals up to $66 over a 6 hour shift.
“It’s only fair that students are awarded for working unsociable hours; hours that could take away from studies,” said NUS Welfare Officer, Jill Molloy. “Penalty rates are pertinent to already low-paid students; they can be the difference between paying bills that week.”
“Cuts to Sunday penalty rates, attacks on Centrelink and the prospect of 100k degrees will push more and more students out of studying” Molloy says.
The government wants students to work and study and yet refuses to support students who work hard to do so. The National Union of Students believes that measures such as these will lock more and more working class students out of university.
Sophie Johnston National President | National Union of Students
