The Federal Court rejected a challenge by the prominent Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association and United Voice unions to reverse the Fair Work Commission’s decision to cut some Sunday and public holiday penalty rates paid to retail and hospitality workers.
In rejecting the applications on Wednesday morning, the judges said the court could not enter into the merits of the commission’s decision to cut penalty rates. The court confirmed it was restricted to reviewing the process by which the commission arrived at its conclusions to ensure that in performing its statutory task, it “did so free of jurisdictional error”.
The Opposition Leader immediately slammed the decision as “disappointing” but was quick to seize a silver lining, saying “it’s clear the best way to protect penalty rates is to vote Labor”.
Disappointing decision in the Federal Court. It's clear the best way to protect penalty rates is to vote Labor.
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) October 10, 2017
United Voice’s National Secretary, Ms Jo-anne Schofield said the decision delivered a “new low blow for Australians who work weekends”.
Unsurprisingly, the Australian Retailers Association, the peak industry body for small, medium and large retailers, hailed the decision with Executive Direction, Mr Russell Zimmerman, saying “the ARA hopes the ALP and other political parties who are seeking to overturn this decision are sensible enough to accept the umpire’s decision and allow retailers to get on with the job of employing more people.”
