No breaks for workers from this Government

Despite compelling submissions that the current right of workers to a rest and meal break should continue to form part of our basic labour rights, the Government is ploughing ahead with the Bill that will remove the right of workers to a tea and lunch break, said the CTU today. It even goes as far as enabling employers to require workers to work during any unpaid lunch break that they do agree to.

The Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee published its report on the Rest and Meal Breaks Amendment Bill today and made no changes to their plans to roll back the rights which had only just come in to force last year.

“It is unimaginable what would lead the Government to make this change, except a real disrespect for working people and their basic needs at work,” said CTU President Helen Kelly.

“The provisions in the new Bill remove the right to a break and instead allow employers to refuse them. While they make some provision for ‘compensatory measures’, no substantive criteria remain in the Bill to describe what the compensation should be based on. The Bill also enables employers to require workers to stay in the workplace and even attend to work during an unpaid break. This disregards the need workers have to tend to personal matters in breaks and the fact that this provision will be exploited to save wages rather than give breaks.”

The CTU will continue to campaign against the removal of such a basic human need and against the package of other changes going through Parliament removing work rights.

ENDS

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