One Nation has copied a Greens proposal to mandate that industrial deals can’t cut a worker’s full rate of pay, including penalty rates, below the award, in a bid to embarrass Labor and unions that strike such deals.
The bid has failed to derail Labor’s proposal to protect penalty rates for award workers, which the Senate passed on Thursday, but briefly saw the Greens and One Nation on a unity ticket supporting fast-food and retail workers they say have been disadvantaged by union deals.
Labor’s employment spokesman, Brendan O’Connor, has accused One Nation of not being genuine in its support for low-paid workers but has not ruled out reviewing the better-off-overall test, prompted by Greens and One Nation demands.
Labor, the Greens and Jacqui Lambie put up a proposal to reverse Fair Work Commission cuts to penalty rates in retail and hospitality awards, and banning future cuts to penalty rates.
On 20 March, Greens industrial relations spokesman, Adam Bandt, released a bill going even further, mandating that enterprise agreements cannot cut the “full rate of pay” of workers.
The bill would effectively ban enterprise agreements that leave individual workers worse off by cutting penalty rates in return for increases in base rates of pay or other conditions.
The Fair Work Commission has found that the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) agreement at Coles reduced penalty rates by such a large amount that tens of thousands of workers were left worse off.
The Coalition and One Nation argue that workers at McDonald’s and other retailers and fast-food stores have been similarly disadvantaged.
On Thursday, after One Nation backflipped to support the Labor penalty rates bill on Monday, senator Malcolm Roberts moved amendments in identical terms to the Greens bill.
In a statement and before the Senate, Roberts said: “One Nation is committed to both supporting Aussie workers and to helping Aussie small businesses compete, so to this end I will be moving an amendment to Labor’s bill to extend the protection against the loss of penalty rates to existing [enterprise agreements].”
He cited the example of McDonald’s, where he said workers receive $21.08 on Sunday instead of the award rate of $29.16.
Despite the push, the Senate passed the Labor bill by 37 to 26, with One Nation joining Labor, the Greens, Lambie and Nick Xenophon Team to pass it.
Roberts told Guardian Australia that Labor had “immediately shut down debate ... embarrassed by the fact they’ve worked with union bosses to strip workers of penalty rates”.
“It shows their hypocrisy that they turned down an opportunity to bring back penalty rates for workers who’ve had them stripped.”
Roberts claimed One Nation would continue to push for the changes although Labor’s bill has now gone to the lower house, where the government will prevent it coming to a vote.
Asked about the One Nation amendments at a press conference before the Senate approved Labor’s bill, the shadow employment minister, Brendan O’Connor, said he was “very happy to discuss looking at the better-off-overall test [for registering enterprise agreements] if there was a genuine [proposal]”.
O’Connor accused One Nation of attempting to sabotage the bill and called for the party to support it, which Pauline Hanson’s party then did.
He suggested it was not credible that One Nation was genuine in moving the amendment, “having for the last week after week saying they want the abolition of penalty rates”.
“If the government sincerely wants to examine the test ... because they’re concerned about workers maybe not getting everything they should through that test, we’re very happy to have that discussion after this bill which will prevent the FWC [cut] happening.”
At a separate press conference, Bandt said he was “very pleased” that One Nation had understood the problem that many retail and fast-food workers who worked late at nights and on weekends earned less than the award wage.
“That’s happening because of dodgy deals that were signed that never should have been approved by the commission in the first place.”
Bandt said the Greens would pursue their plan in this parliament and hoped One Nation supported it.
Asked about the similarity between the Greens and One Nation plans, a spokesman for Bandt conceded they were “similar” and Bandt said they “seem to be going in the same direction” as the Greens.
Roberts said One Nation was aware of Bandt’s bill and one of its staffers had “looked at how to restore” workers’ rights. It “could well be” that the party had copied the Greens although he also suggested it may have been a coincidence.
Roberts said his party was genuinely “protecting union members against bosses, and small businesses against the union-big business cartel” but did not commit to bring another bill or support the Greens.
In earlier comments, SDA national secretary, Gerard Dwyer, denied that its enterprise agreements sold out workers, citing the fact that agreements lifted base rates of pay and other conditions, and that companies’ overall wage bills were higher under the agreements than the award, proving workers were better off overall.
The SDA believes the commission applied a more stringent test in the Coles case that no individual workers were allowed to be worse off, which is why it tore up the deal.
