Tens of thousands of low-paid restaurant and cafe staff will lose part of their penalty rates for working on Sundays after a long-awaited decision by the industrial tribunal.
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The decision means loading for working on Sundays will drop from 75 per cent to 50 per cent for some casual workers from July.
This reduces the Sunday penalty rates for the lowest-paid workers to the same as penalty rates for Saturdays - despite the Fair Work Commission agreeing that Sundays had a special place in society.
The restaurant and catering industries immediately lauded the decision, and will use the basis of it to push for further reductions to penalty rates. The industry believes businesses will save $112 million from the decision.
According to the majority judgment of the Fair Work Commission, paying workers higher penalty rates on Sundays ''may have a limited effect on employment''.
This means that the commission accepted that some cafes and restaurants would be more likely to hire staff if wages were lowered.
But the judgment also rejected the argument by the industry that, for casual workers, working on Sundays was no different to working on Saturdays.
''Working on Sundays involves a loss of a day of family time and personal interaction upon which special emphasis is placed by Australian society,'' the judgment said.
The decision applies only to the two lowest grades of employees in a restaurant, bar, or cafe.
Restaurant & Catering Australia chief executive John Hart said that some businesses, now shut on Sundays, could consider reopening.
''This will provide labour cost relief for restaurant and cafe operators currently trading on Sundays,'' Mr Hart said of the decision.
The restaurant industry is arguing for deeper cuts to penalty rates.
Mr Hart said the decision would affect between 30,000 and 40,000 workers across the country, and represented the first time the commission had accepted that higher penalty rates could lead to lower employment.
''That's a really important part of what this decision has found,'' Mr Hart said.
The acting national secretary of United Voice, David O'Byrne, said the decision risked creating an underclass of lower-paid workers.
''The real concern for us is the treatment of casuals at the lower end of the classification structure,'' Mr O'Byrne said.
He said that food and beverage attendants classified as grades one or two were often new to the industry, more vulnerable than experienced workers, and often women.
As a result of the decision, these employees will receive a lower loading on Sundays than employees on higher grades.
