Title: Group Debate: Individual Essay
Topic: Penalty wage rates for work done outside the ‘normal’ Monday-Friday working week should be abolished. (Defending)

Introduction

Penalty rate wage were introduced to compensate employees for working during the so-called unsocial hours.
Unsociable hours of work occur during the days of the week or hours of the day when most of the people do not have to work. The idea behind the term is that there are only some times of day when others are available for social contact, and if the workers are expected to be at their workplaces at these times, social contact becomes very difficult (Bittman, 2005). Reducing standardisation of working hours makes scheduling and social coordination increasing difficult, if not impossible. The International Labour Organization (ILO) describes unsocial hours as ‘night works, weekend work and long shifts during peak periods’ (ILO, 2008).
In practice, unsociable hours have been defined as anytime outside 9am to 5pm Monday (Dawkins, 1985).
Traditionally, penalty payments were defended on the grounds that work at "socially unacceptable" times needs to be compensated. This was most obvious with respect to work on Sundays, the traditional day of rest in Christian societies, but this became a principle extended to Saturdays and evenings. (Visontay, 2011).
Factors considered in defending penalty rates include the effects on religious, social and family life; lack of access to public transport, and the harmful health consequences of night work (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2013).
The world today, however, is very different to the one in which these arguments were conceived.
This paper defends the abolition of penalty rate wage outside Monday-Friday and it presents a series of reasons to support why eliminating them will provide a positive contribution to the economy.

Explanation and Analysis