Employer groups have been vocal for some time about their desire to squeeze more out of their workers. But something clearly snapped in the lead-up to the Easter long weekend, when the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry decided to launch a bizarre campaign to win public support for wage cuts. The campaign, Too Big to Ignore, called for small business owners to display “I’m sorry” posters in their shop windows explaining they were closed because of “excessive penalty rates”. Regional chambers of commerce also lined up stories in local papers featuring business owners who told tales about how paying wages is “making life tough”.

Presumably they had calculated that even if we didn’t all dive straight into our wallets to start handing back our wages, at least we’d start to see things from their perspective. They were wrong.

A January poll by Essential Media found that more than 80 percent of people thought that those who worked outside ordinary hours should receive higher rates of pay. Unsurprisingly then, the bosses’ Easter campaign was greeted with disgust. Thousands took to social media to express their outrage.

While Debra Murphy from the Illawarra Business Chamber was telling the Illawarra Mercury that the penalty rates system “is out of touch with community standards”, the community was delivering an impressive indication of where it sits on this question.

By the end of the weekend, the most pertinent words on the bosses’ posters were “I’m sorry” – although we weren’t. “Well, I think it’s appalling”, said Erin from Cooks Hill, who spoke to the ABC about the campaign. “I was walking past a restaurant in Newcastle over the weekend, saw the sign, and first thing this morning I rang and cancelled my wedding reception there.

“The only reason that my wedding reception was there in the first place was because I could afford it because of penalty rates.”

The argument that greedy workers are somehow to blame for businesses not making enough profit is a favourite of the bosses. They have made it very clear that they want to push our wages and conditions backwards. And while the response to their Easter stunt will be recorded as a win for our side, the bigger fight around penalty rates is one the bosses won’t so easily back down from.