Paying the penalty

Penalty is what this post is about; the penalty for living in modern times, and attempting to enjoy their many services.

I'm talking of the custom, habit, convention, the relatively unchallenged practice of penalty rates of pay for work done on a Saturday or Sunday, particularly in the food and hospitality industries.

Why do these penalties exist?

Are they some form of punishment upon businesses for daring to trade on days when the 'norm' dictates that people should have the day off?

Once again, why?

Why are these two days held to be the ritual times when people should not be obliged to work?

Perhaps years ago in traditionally formalistic eras, it became conventional to work from Monday to Friday (possibly Saturday as well) then have the next day off. Society was structured and planned around the five or six day working week, and rigid religious beliefs dictated observance of Sunday as some form of revered observance of imposed values. Early Australia suffered the conformist social authoritarian prohibition against working on Sunday.

Although these colonial rituals are still with us the old demarcation between employers and workers has eroded steadily as more people take control of their income destiny and operate their own business.

Life and living, seasons, supply, demand, don't adhere to a weekly calendar. Events occur when they will, and it is up the society to respond to these.

I was fortunate (?) to spend a lifetime in the media news and entertainment industry which is a seven-days-a-week business.

Beginning with my earlier days, I could never see the logic for salary loadings for work done on weekends; to me, it was perfectly normal to supply a service when huge numbers of people demanded it, and to do it as part of the job I had chosen as a career.

Now that I am "retired", I operate a small contracting business which supplements my income, but still needs work to be done exactly when it is needed, not when somebody else says that I may do so.

I work on weekends, as well as anytime which I find necessary to get the job done, because I wish to, and enjoy doing so, but I don't put my hand out to me and demand time and three quarters for working on a Sunday.

Again, why?

The answer is that my clients should not have to pay a higher charge for work performed on that day compared to work performed on any other.

The point I make is that it is the results that earns the income, not the method or time.

All of us would accept that we live now in a 24/7 society.

Without arguing the merits or otherwise of this lifestyle, it is a fact that many people choose to enjoy relaxation, entertainment and dining on Sundays, and a number of eateries cater for this need.

Why should the staff who work there on Sundays be payed a "penalty' rate for doing so?

It is their choice to work in that environment and on that day; the proprietor should not have to pay a wage loading just to be able to open the doors, provide the service that customers seek, and make a profit in the process.

No business can operate without making enough profit to stay afloat, yet the current industrial regulations impose a genuine penalty (punishment?) on businesses which exist to satisfy a public demand.

The adage of 'a fair day's pay for a fair day's work' is a reasonable and proper approach to any occupation. But consider the farmer who planned to have a day of relaxation yet got a pleasant shower of rain the night before; wouldn't he jump at the opportunity to activate his prepared sowing plan when this opportunity came up? Or would he demand time and three quarters for doing that work, because it was a Sunday?

What about sports clubs which perform public matches – do they pay players penalty rates for Sunday games? Or would the spectators be prepared to pay almost double ticket costs to see a game played on a Sunday, compared with a Friday match?

Any rationale which may have existed for paying penalty rates for Sunday work is now out of date.

The alternative is for Australian towns and cities to become shuttered societies, sleeping on Sundays and resisting anything which challenged ancient orthodoxy. Oh yes …there still some of these to be found even in modern times.

There is nothing wrong with making the choice to have Sunday as a day of rest and to indulge in unstructured personal recreation, but don't carry this imperative over to those who drive the planes and trains on that day, those who feed us, those who open their shops so that we can indulge our buying wishes, those who gather and put to air the news for that night's TV bulletins, those who staff our hospitals, any of those who make the choice to work on a day on which many others of us choose to relax.

Penalties? Perhaps a penalty for progress.