This is the Business Council’s submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Education and Employment’s inquiry into penalty rates.

The Business Council recommends that:

1. The Committee rejects proposals to amend the Fair Work Act 2009 to ensure that enterprise agreements do not contain terms that specify penalty rates which are lower than the respective modern award. This includes the Fair Work Amendment (Pay Protection) Bill 2017.
2. The Committee examines the current impediments to efficient and effective bargaining resulting from the current application of the Better Off Overall Test and how these impediments could be overcome through a reformulation of the current test.

Download a copy of our submission here.