Labor continues to stand against cuts to the take home pay of some of Australia’s lowest paid workers.

An application to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) by the hair and beauty industry aims to cut penalty rates under the Hair and Beauty Award. 

Under the proposed cuts, hairdressers and beauty therapists could lose up to $95 of their weekly take-home pay if they work on a Sunday. 

Close to 1000 people in Ipswich, the Somerset Region and the Karana Downs region are employed as hairdressers and beauty therapists – two of the lowest paid trades in Australia. 

A Shorten Labor Government will legislate to reverse the cuts and prevent any more from being made in the first 100 days. 

Labor has long warned that the cuts to penalty rates in the Hospitality, Fast Food, Retail and Pharmacy Awards that commenced last year could spread to other industries.

The fact industry continues to pursue further cuts to penalty rates confirms that the first round of penalty rate cuts was just the beginning of a broader assault on the take-home pay of Australian workers.

Penalty rates are not a luxury, they are what pay the bills and put food on the table.

At a time when wages growth has hit record lows, Malcolm Turnbull is doing everything he can to give big business a $80 billion tax cut, and doing nothing to stop a pay cut for Australia’s lowest-paid workers.

If the Prime Minister truly cared about protecting workers he could support Labor’s Bill in the Parliament now, which will restore the penalty rates which have already been cut and protect the take-home pay of people who rely on penalty rates into the future.  

But it is clear that he won’t. The only way to protect penalty rates is to change the government.