Australia's biggest retailers are expected to seize on the landmark cut to Sunday penalty rates to push for new deals covering hundreds of thousands of their workers.
Staff at Woolworths and Wesfarmers-owned businesses, including Coles, Kmart, Target, and Bunnings, are employed under wage agreements that expired long before this week's Fair Work Commission ruling on weekend pay.
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Penalty rate cut: how did it happen?
Workplace reporter Nick Toscano contextualises the Fair Work Commission's announcement on Thursday that Sunday penalty rates paid in retail, fast food, hospitality and pharmacy industries will be reduced from the existing levels.
Experts say the employers held off proposing new arrangements ahead of the tribunal's decision on Thursday which slashed retail workers' Sunday rates from "double time" to 150 per cent.
Now that the decision has landed there are widespread predictions that these deals will now be progressed once the cuts take effect from July.
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None of the big companies contacted was willing to comment on the prospects of new deals, but the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association claimed employers have been stalling negotiations "in anticipation" of the ruling.
"There is no doubt that some major employers have delayed entering new EBAs [Enterprise Bargaining Agreements] until [the] Fair Work Commission's decision in anticipation of a penalty rate cut," union secretary Gerard Dwyer said.
"Future bargaining will take place in an environment of lower Sunday penalty rates, meaning workers will simply not be able to secure wages they could have received if the decision had protected penalty rates."
As the political storm over the penalty rate cut escalated on Friday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that, although low-paid workers were in line for a pay cut on Sundays, the inquiry had found it would boost employment and work hours.
"Yes, there are many hundreds of thousands, about 600,000 ... who will receive less on Sundays," Mr Turnbull said.
"But the Fair Work Commission, as you know, took several years to consider this ... and their decision has been that overall this will see more employment, more jobs, more growth, more employment opportunities."
Josh Cullinan, secretary of the newly formed Retail and Fast Food Workers Union, said that the flurry of new agreements may still fail to be approved by the industrial umpire unless there was substantial change to the expired agreements to improve conditions.
The problem, he said, was that big retailers' wage deals would still fail the legal test requiring workers to be "better off overall" compared to the award even after the reduction in the minimum award Sunday penalty rate.
"Even if these Sunday penalty rate cuts are implemented, there are still penalty rates of 150 per cent on Sundays, 125 per cent on weeknights and 125 per cent on Saturdays," he said.
"These agreements are still not going to pass because they substantially underpay large parts of their workforces."
Some commentators have claimed that the ruling will have no impact on workers covered by enterprise agreements, rather than awards.
But the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association said all retail workers would be affected once new deals started flowing through the system.
"The award sets the floor for all EBAs," Mr Dwyer said.
"Once Sunday penalty rates are cut to 150 per cent, no employer will then be willing to offer 200 per cent in a renegotiated EBA."
Employer groups have been pushing for years for a reduction to penalty rates on Sundays, which they say are too high, no longer reflect community standards and are forcing businesses to close their doors on weekends and public holidays.
While many retailers are pleased with the judgment, not all businesses will use the opportunity to cut weekend wages.
Cosmetics chain Lush has told its 580 Australian employees that it will keep paying them existing penalty rates on Sundays or public holidays.
"No one working for Lush Australia will be adversely affected by Fair Work's announcement," the company told its staff.
"We believe that those making the sacrifice to work on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays, deserve to be fairly compensated."
The company noted that applying the cuts to penalty rates was a choice.
"The happiest and most productive employees are those who feel safe, valued and listened to by their employers," the company said.
"We encourage other employers to carefully consider the implications on their employees before making the choice."