The prime minister is beginning the day in Sydney where he will step up Labor's campaign on penalty rates.
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00:00Focusing today on penalty rates, the Federal Government if re-elected Labor says they will
00:09commit to legislating to protect penalty rates, so make it law that they can't go backwards.
00:17This would protect the conditions of about 3 million Australian workers who are paid
00:22under award wages.
00:24Those awards contain the minimum pay and conditions that they work under.
00:31This is part of the overall framing of Labor working for those struggling to make ends meet
00:37amid the cost of living crunch, seeking to shore up those additional top up rates that
00:43people get for working weekends and public holidays.
00:47Something they say is at risk because retail, clerical and banking sectors have applied to
00:53the Fair Work Commission to be able to reduce or amend those rates as part of the award.
01:00Usually this process happens through individual agreements, but they're seeking changes as
01:05part of the award rate, so Labor here trying to step up, in their words, to protect these
01:12rates from future changes, potential changes, and they've also used it as an opportunity
01:17to go back over the Coalition's history when it comes to penalty rates.
01:23Back several years ago, the Coalition saying that they would support a reduction in those
01:29pay rates to support small businesses.