Govt supports equal pay for retail workers

    From: AAP
    May 22, 2013
    The Australian.
 

THE federal government has given its backing to a union campaign for equal pay for young retail workers, saying it won't have a detrimental impact on youth employment.    

The Shop Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA) last month launched a claim for 20-year-olds to be paid the same rate as 21-year-olds, as a first step to having all those aged over 18 paid the adult rate.

In its submission to the Fair Work Commission (FWC), the federal government said there was "no evidence that 20-year-olds working in the retail sector perform work at a lower level to workers aged 21 years and above".

"The government submits that consistent with the principle of equal pay for work of equal value, the full bench should consider whether the work performed by a 20-year-old under the Retail Award is ostensibly the same as that performed by an adult," the submission says.


About 58 per cent of 20-year-olds working in the retail sector are already paid the adult wage under existing enterprise agreements, while the potential cost impact will be just 0.06 per cent of the industry's annual wages bill, the government says.

"The claim would not have a detrimental impact on youth employment."

The government submission was welcomed by SDA national secretary Joe de Bruyn, who said "workers deserve to be paid on their contribution to the workplace, not their age".    

"The time has come to rectify the discriminatory practice of not paying workers a full adult wage until they turn 21," Mr de Bruyn said in a statement.

But the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), which represents small businesses, said the government's support for the SDA claim would damage confidence in an industry already hit by high wage costs.

ACCI called for the government to "back off" and allow the FWC to decide on the case without the commonwealth "barracking for the union push".    

"Age-based junior wages in the retail industry are set independently, and when last examined the tribunal found they were not discriminatory because they provided an entry into the world of work and acted as a proxy for lower levels of experience," ACCI chief Peter Anderson said in a statement.