Unions brace over proposal to cut weekend penalty rates

John Osborn, the chief operating officer for the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said it was mobilising members for a national campaign to cut weekend penalty rates.

''We need to look at Sunday penalty rates and how they are adversely affecting employment opportunities, particularly for the young,'' he said.

''We should bring Sunday penalty rates down at least in line with Saturday rates. We don't live in the 1950s any more, we live in a modern 24/7 community in the digital age and we need workplace laws that reflect that.''

ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver said unions would challenge the attack on weekend workers which he said would also affect nurses, police, ambulance workers, fire fighters, pharmacists and miners along with retail and hospitality workers.

''I say to the business lobby, [Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry] chief Kate Carnell, Tony Abbott, and the Liberal backbench, if you want a fight over weekends in the Australian community, let's do that,'' Mr Oliver said.

''We will fight this unfair push to cut people's pay in workplaces, we will fight it in the Industrial Tribunal and we will fight it in the community. We know that the vast majority of voters, even a majority of Coalition voters, reckon workers who work Sundays should get paid more.''

He said workers should be adequately paid for giving up Sundays away from family and friends. David O'Byrne, the national secretary of United Voice, said the push to cut Sunday penalty rates was ''an outrageous attack on predominantly low-paid workers''.

''These weekend rates make up a significant proportion of take-home pay,'' he said. ''Using the guise of job security to attack weekend rates is intellectually dishonest. This is very much about the Americanisation of the workforce and creation of an underclass.'' The Fair Work Commission will on Wednesday hand down the result of its annual review of the minimum wage.