"They are coming after penalty rates‏" - Unions

Didn't take them long did it. Hasn't even been six months in office yet has it?

The federal government is finalising plans for a sweeping review of the nation's workplace laws, and could hand-pick an industrial relations expert from outside the Productivity Commission to help lead it.

Before the election, the government promised a ''genuine and independent review'' of the Fair Work laws by the economically dry commission, to consider their impact on productivity, the economy and jobs, with a view to raising flexibility in the workplace.

The review comes as Employment Minister Eric Abetz revealed plans to introduce new laws next week that would allow workers to trade off conditions such as penalty rates in return for more flexible hours. Fairfax Media has learnt former Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson, a critic of the Fair Work laws, was informally sounded out late last year about participating in the review. Read more

Australian Unions have responded thus:

When you work unsociable hours and miss out on time with family and friends, you deserve to be compensated -- that's why penalty rates exist. For many workers feeling the squeeze from the high cost of living, a cut to penalty rates and take home pay would make keeping their heads above water nearly impossible. 

Tony Abbott is introducing new laws that will give employers the ability to strip away penalty rates under the smokescreen of "workplace flexibility." This will mean cuts to take home pay for hundreds of thousands of workers, particularly for low paid, older and women workers. 

Australian families have benefited from the penalty rates protections. Stripping penalty rates will have a dramatic impact on our community and will harm our economy. 

We need to send Tony Abbott and his government a strong message: don't mess with penalty rates. Please sign this petition and share it with your family and friends. Sign here.

It all sounds OK doesn't it. You only trade away penalty rates if you want to and all. Well before anyone does that, perhaps they should consider the fight and sacrifice from union members in years gone by that got us these penalty rates in the first place? Once you trade them away, you'll never get them back.