GoddyofOz wrote on Jan 11^th, 2012 at 3:42am:


Maybe he isn't charging his customers enough to cover wages?

Flexibility does not, or should  mean pay cuts.  If people work weekend or public holidays, of course they should get their penalty rates.   

If you support penalty rates then you have to support higher prices outside business hours to compensate.

Penalty rates are supposed to be an incentive to attract staff to work outside normal work hours when there is a shortage of staff during those times, not just a union extorted perk for all shift workers.

In other words market based.

Swagman wrote on Jan 11^th, 2012 at 7:42am:



It's amazing how many people have so little understanding of shift work conditions.

.

Historically penalties have never had anything to do with either incentives, the market or a number of other things regularly attributed

It's not often you find yourself feeling sorry for restaurateurs.

But the impact of the Fair Work Australia awards on restaurants in WA makes one want to storm the political barricades on their behalf.

The awards will put staff out of work and send restaurants broke.

At best, it will become increasingly difficult to find a meal on a Sunday or a public holiday when penalty rates of up to 250 per cent for waiters and chefs make it unviable to open the doors.

The only winners are the union bosses, who have now been imposed on restaurants as unwelcome business partners. There's little doubt that unions are now calling the shots, and making restaurants uncompetitive is mere collateral damage - all made possible by the Gillard Government's Fair Work Australia policies.

And, there is no greater example that Canberra is out of touch than Fair Work Australia's 7pm rule which says that penalty rates for restaurant workers come in to effect after 7pm - the very time that restaurants get to work. You can understand when restaurateurs interpret such IR laws as a personal attack on their sector.

Bill Shorten, the minister responsible for the Fair Work Australia reforms, defended the laws, saying unions and restaurateurs retained the right to negotiate and the awards were not that bad.

Mr Shorten well knows that these are weasel words. There is no union in the nation that would enter into negotiations to reduce award wages.

It beggars belief that Mr Shorten believes Australians are foolish enough to accept him at his word.

In the meantime, prices in WA restaurants - among the nation's highest - will continue to rise. At least in the ones that survive.

And go hug a restaurateur: it's perhaps the only comfort they'll get.

A column from the west australians food critic.  i thought it was quite good.

Quote:


If you want a 9-5 job don't be a waiter, or pretty much anything involved with hospitality.  It's no secret that you'l be working hours when the main crowd are not.  If however, you are a student with classes during the day, it is an excellent way to earn some extra money while you work your way towards soemthing better.  It is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

... wrote on Jan 11^th, 2012 at 10:10am:



Sorry Honk, but this is just bullsh!t.
As I said yesterday I was in the industry from 1986 till 2001
& I was paid exactly the same penalty rates as the ones apparently forced onto these restaurants by Gillard.
If they are so onerous why weren't they fazed out by Keating with enterprise bargaining or Howard even before Work Choices.
No these rates have been in place for decades and are fair.

The beatup about Fair Work imposing them is a lie.

Oh & 7pm is NOT when a restaurant starts work, its just the time most of the general public starts to arrive.
Chefs will arrive from 11am onwards
Front of house 4PM onwards
Do you think those tables set themselves, this idiot knows nothing from what you've posted, he probably became a critic yesterday when he transferred from the young liberals lunchroom


The old adage rings true
"Those that cant, bitch"