When debating the strategy and tactics of our union movement, one principle should never be jettisoned. It’s a simple one: “If the employers like you, you're not doing your fucking job as a union.” Danny Cain, WA branch organiser for the Maritime Union of Australia, laid out this point to a meeting of student unionists at a conference last year. The MUA knows how to fight and win. It knows which side it’s on.
It’s a damn shame that retail workers can’t expect similar from our union, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA). The SDA has signed a deal with Business South Australia to scrap retail industry Saturday and night time penalty rates and reduce them on Sundays and public holidays.
The bosses are lining up to sing the union’s praise. Nigel McBride, Business South Australia CEO, said: “Clearly in reaching this agreement the SDA has recognised that penalty rates are a barrier to retailers opening and employing people on Sundays and public holidays.”
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Kate Cornell said: “I applaud both parties for recognising that penalty rates are an impediment to retailers opening at certain hours and therefore inhibiting growth in jobs and work hours.”
The Australian Retail Association and the Restaurant and Catering Industry Association have also congratulated the SDA.
Federal employment minister Eric Abetz has metaphorically put his hands together to celebrate the deal and the “constructive approach” taken by the union.
If judged by the cheerleaders for the deal, the SDA has clearly orchestrated a total sell-out.
Who wins?
In exchange for losing penalty rates, workers will receive an 8 percent per hour base wage increase, and are given the legal right to refuse work on Sundays and public holidays.
What will this actually mean for workers whose bosses sign on to the agreement?
Permanent full time staff who work weeknights or weekends will be worse off. Permanent full time staff who work only during standard business hours will be between $21.50 and $56.10 a week better off. Casual workers who work part time on weekends will have their hourly wages cut by between $5 and $7.
As for the “right” to refuse work on Sunday, anyone who has worked in small business can attest that the notion is a joke.
But this is not just about retail workers in South Australia. The obvious crime of the SDA deal is that it opens a bridgehead to the erosion of penalty rates at exactly the moment that the bosses are pushing for it nationally. It is a gift to the ruling class.
The SDA has broken ranks with a union movement that has so far firmly opposed cuts to penalty rates. The deal arms the bosses and their henchmen in parliament with the case for cutting wages.
Shamefully, the Labor party has jumped at the chance to declare the deal a success story of its Fair Work Act. Federal party leaders Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek have spoken in favour of the agreement. Federal Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite called it a “win-win”.
For retail workers and those in any industry facing the threat of penalty rate cuts, it now looks like we not only have to ready for the fight against Abbott and the bosses, but also the rats in our own ranks.
[Feedback about the deal can be provided to the South Australian branch of the SDA on 1800 806 398 or at [email protected]. Duncan Hart is a member of the SDA in Queensland.]
