Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move Greens amendment (9) on sheet 5729:

(9)    Page 118 (after line 28), at the end of Division 10, add:

116A Compensation for public holiday

        (1)    Where an employee works on a public holiday, the employee is entitled to the additional compensation provided for in the modern award that covers the employee.

        (2)    To avoid doubt, an enterprise agreement or individual flexibility arrangement cannot alter the entitlement to compensation in subsection (1).

This amendment adds a clause dealing with public holiday compensation. It is intended to ensure that employees who work on public holidays are appropriately compensated. We appreciate that penalty rates for public holidays are in the relevant modern award and believe that is the correct approach. However, we are concerned that such compensation can be bargained away with enterprise agreements or in fact with individual flexibility arrangements. As Professor Peetz stated in his submission to the Senate inquiry:

Public holidays exist for reasons of community celebration and benefit, and all workers should be entitled to such a benefit. For the majority of workers, this benefit takes the form of a day off to commemorate the particular occasion in the way that suits them. For a minority of workers … it is not feasible for all to have a guaranteed day off. Those workers should be paid a significant premium for working that day …

We agree with Professor Peetz. This amendment seeks to ensure that what Professor Peetz articulated occurs. We commend the amendment to the Senate.