Source : Perth Now news
Unions are ramping up pressure on the government to instil a four-day work week that won’t impact workers’ pay.
The radical proposal will be made by the unions at an inquiry in Melbourne, suggesting it was time to improve workers’ lives and lift living standards.
The group said that could be achieved by initially reducing the working week from 38 to 35 hours, before eliminating the five-day work week altogether and moving to four shifts per week.
Australian unions will push their plans at the National Employment Standards (NES) public hearing that will be held on May 1.
The NES set out the minimum terms and conditions of employment for all national system employees, alongside modern awards. Together, they form the safety net that underpins Australia’s workplace relations system.
The plan is backed by the retail workers – the SDA, the Australian Services Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, the United Workers Union, the Victorian Trades Hall Council and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).
The ACTU says workers should not have their pay and conditions, including penalty rates, overtime and minimum staffing levels impacted, in this change.
ACTU president Michele O’Neil said Australians had been working long hours for some time now and it was time for change.
“Working people work to live, not live to work, and the results of trials tell us more time for workers boosts productivity, reduces burnout, improves their health and retention,” she said.
According to the unions, now is the time for the biggest change to employment standards since the 1970s, as workers have not received their fair share from the benefits of productivity gains and technological advances over the last five decades.
In addition, the unions will argue as part of a review of national employment standards, workers should secure an extra week of annual leave, to counter both rising work pressures and the high rate of unpaid overtime.
This would mean annual leave rises from four to five weeks for most Australians, and five to six for regular shift workers.
“Another way to make things fairer is to allow workers to take an extra week of annual leave to reclaim some of that unpaid overtime,” Ms O’Neil said.
“We’ve had annual leave stuck at four weeks for the last 50 years while much of Europe has already moved to leave beyond four weeks.”
