Federal Politics

EXCLUSIVE

Cutting Sunday penalty rates would threaten Coalition in marginal seats: poll

The Turnbull government would likely feel an electoral backlash in marginal seats if Sunday penalty rates are cut, polling suggests.

The long overdue decision of the Fair Work Commission on streamlining weekend pay rates is expected imminently, setting up another political brawl.

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The rate debate

Changes to penalty rates have long been protested and debated. This is where it currently sits, and what might change.

While about 60 Coalition MPs have publicly supported lowering Sunday rates and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has described them as a quirk of history, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten recently shifted position from saying Labor would accept the umpire's position to proposing new rules that would ensure no worker would suffer an overall drop in pay.

Polling conducted by ReachTel for hospitality industry union United Voice in five Liberal and National Party-held marginal seats in NSW showed cutting the double time Sunday rate remains unpopular with a majority of the electorate, with twice as many people opposing any change than those who would back one.

In a warning to the Coalition in seats it must win to retain government, nearly half of those polled - 48 per cent - said they would be more likely to vote for a political party that promised to restore Sunday rates if they were lowered as a result of the Fair Work decision.

In the electorates of Reid, Robertson, Banks, Page and Gilmore - all narrowly-held by the Coalition - more people said the issue could change their vote than the 30 per cent who said it would not alter their voting intention.

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The poll also places a question mark over the restaurant industry's claim that steep pay rates on Sunday meant some businesses remained shut, reducing the choice for consumers.

About eight in 10 people in the city electorates agreed that finding a restaurant open on a Sunday was "easy" while about six in 10 had that view in the regional seats of Gilmore and Page.

After a number of pay-related scandals at companies like 7 Eleven, a significant majority - 70 per cent - of those polled said underpayment of workers and cash-in-hand payments so a company can avoid tax are bigger problems than Sunday penalty rates for hospitality workers sending businesses broke.

Last month, Mr Shorten said Labor would not accept a cut to weekend rates and would put new rules into the Fair Work Act to ensure workers did not lose out on pay overall even if the Sunday loading was reduced.

The Australian Industry Group has been advocating a cut in rates, saying it would allow more young people to work on weekends but unions have threatened a "fierce" grassroots and social media campaign against any move to cut penalty rates.

Tara Moriarty, secretary of United Voice's liquor and hospitality division, said the polling showed how "deeply ingrained" support for Sunday penalty rates is in Australia.

"Cutting Sunday penalty rates amounts to the greatest wage cut for Australian workers since the Depression. Sunday penalty rates are not extra, discretionary income. Tens of thousands of hospitality workers rely on Sunday penalties to make ends meet," she said.

"Any political party that supports slashing Sunday penalties will pay for it at the ballot box. Support for Sunday penalty rates is deeply ingrained among the Australian public.

"This polling demolishes the only argument business lobbyists have advanced for cutting penalty rates. There is no shortage of places to go for a meal on a Sunday."

The office of Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said the government would not decide the timing of an announcement on penalty rates.

Fair Work, which is reviewing a number of specific retail and hospitality awards, has been looking at Sunday rates since 2015.

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