Independent Senator for Tasmania Jacqui Lambie has restated her strong opposition to any move by the government or Fair Work Commission – which would undermine or decrease Sunday penalty rates for Tasmanian workers.

“Apart from the fact that the proposed decrease in Sunday penalty rates will hit Tasmanian battlers the hardest – the last time this matter was raised, I also made the point that the extra money made by workers on a Sunday through penalty rates – very quickly finds its way back into the local economy and small business community.

So there’s no way I’ll support penalty cuts for Sundays.” said Senator Lambie.

“To add insult to injury for working families this proposal to take money away from Australian battlers comes when the Liberal / National Government continues to push plans which will give the most powerful and wealthy companies in Australia a $50B tax cut – while we learn that out of the top 1500 Australian companies 600 didn’t pay any tax at all!” said Senator Lambie.

“I believe in a fair day’s pay – for a fair day’s work. And the current industrial relations system rules have enough flexibility to ensure business profitability and job security – while paying workers fair pay.

Parliamentary Library research reminds us that:

Enterprise agreements are negotiated between employer and employees, and are intended to create flexibility to meet the needs of particular businesses. An enterprise agreement can override award conditions, but only if the parties can demonstrate that changes to award conditions pass the ‘Better Off Overall Test’ or ‘BOOT’ – the employees are better off overall because of the changes.

In particular, it is permissible to average out penalty rates so that, say, Sundays are paid the same as weekdays, but only as long as there is no overall reduction in wages.

If the government really wanted to help improve our economy and job security / numbers it would:

• Make the big end of town pay their fair share of tax.
• Remove the remaining $3B of RET costs on all Australian energy users
• Agree with my plan to support special economic zones in regional areas and remove payroll tax.” said Senator Lambie.
Rob Messenger for Senator Jacqui Lambie Senator for Tasmania