Employers fail in bid to slash penalty rates for retail, fast food sectors Cost of labour, astronomical: George Calombaris. Photo: Channel Ten A push by employers to slash the penalty rates of workers in retail and fast food has failed with the Fair Work Commission saying some of the key claims lacked evidence. In a strongly worded ruling, the full bench of the commission said while there was some evidence in elements of the case brought by employer groups to reduce penalty rates "it was far from compelling" and there was "a significant evidentiary gap in the cases put." In the cases before the Fair Work Commission, employers had sought to reduce Sunday penalties in retail from 100 per cent to 50 per cent and to remove the 25 per cent evening penalty for all non-casual hours. Employers also pushed to remove weekend penalties for the fast food industry, where workers are paid 25 per cent penalties on Saturdays and 50 per cent penalties on Sunday. High-profile restaurateur and MasterChef judge George Calombaris became a public face of the employer push arguing in late 2011 that restaurants would shut due to the Fair Work laws. "Sunday is one of our busiest days, but you never make any money," Mr Calombaris said. The cost of labour is just astronomical. None of us want to go back to those ghost town days we had years ago, but labour laws are getting tougher and tougher. The Fair Work decision was in response to a transitional review of workplace awards. It had previously told employers this review was "unlikely" to revisit issues dealt with by an earlier overhaul of awards unless "there are cogent reasons for doing so, such as a significant change in circumstances." A later review would be the best place to deal with these issues, it said. It noted that a high proportion of workers in retail, food and accommodation were low paid and they had a high reliance on their pay being set by awards. While aspects of the (employer) applications before us are not without merit - particularly the proposals to reassess the Sunday penalty rate in light of the level applying on Saturdays - the evidentiary case in support of the claims was, at best, limited. The shop assistants union welcomed the decision as a "huge success" against a "sustained" attack by employers. "Today's decision proves once again that penalty rates are as fair and relevant as ever for people who have to work evening and weekends," the SDA national secretary Joe de Bruyn said. The employers didn't substantiate their misconceived claims that people would still work evenings and weekends if the penalties were lower. Nor did their case back up their argument that modern awards don't reflect the modern retail or fast food industries. Last week Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the government would enshrine in law that penalty rates, overtime, shift conditions and public holiday pay were "definite, formal considerations for the Fair Work Commission" when it reviewed awards in the future.