Hotel Windsor attacks award

By Sue Bolton

MELBOURNE -- On October 15, several hundred metalworkers joined with hospitality workers and members of other unions to protest against the first attempt by an employer to use the new federal industrial relations legislation to strip conditions from an award.

The Hotel Windsor, with support from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has applied to the Industrial Relations Commission to strip 53 conditions from the Hotels Award.

These include cuts to public holiday penalty rates and rostered days off, reduced penalty rates for overtime and weekend work, no maximum or minimum hours for part-time workers, removing the right of workers to have a say about when they can take annual leave, removing the right to be represented by a union, removing the right to regular pay days and employers being able to change rosters without notice.

Australian Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union secretary Helen Casey condemned the Hotel Windsor. She warned that if the hotel was successful, hotel workers would end up being paid “only $9.50 an hour to work on a Sunday or a public holiday” even though the industry is “booming”.

Casey added that business surveys show hotels are one of the most profitable investments.

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