Cafes, restaurants and retail outlets in St George have joined an Easter campaign led by NSW Business Chamber to end excessive penalty rates.
‘‘Cafes, restaurants and shops in NSW have been given posters to put up in their shop windows – apologising to customers for being closed, or explaining that, while they are open, they are leaning on family members to help serve customers,’’ said Carlos Zeidan from Hurstville Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber, through its submissions to the Fair Work Commission, does not want to see penalty rates abolished.
‘‘We believe that sensible penalty rates should be paid for certain weekend and public holiday times,’’ Mr Zeidan said.
‘‘However, it’s ridiculous that penalty rates are now so excessive that businesses are forced to close to avoid making losses.’’
Cafe Bella Dee at Sans Souci is among the cafes trading on Easter Monday.
Co-owner Stella Lascaris said staff were being paid double time and a half but that the cafe would not charge customers a public holiday surcharge.
‘‘Our viewpoint is that we provide the same quality service whether it’s a public holiday or not,’’ she said.
‘‘I’m a cafe user too, and I find it a bit annoying when I have to pay a surcharge.’’
Miss Lascaris said some cafe owners may find public holiday penalty rates prohibitive.
‘‘About 80 per cent of our customers are local, and we expect to be really busy on Monday,’’ she said.
Mr Zeidan said Easter— with its four back-to-back public holidays — would ‘‘create enormous pressure on the owners of cafes, restaurants and shops in the region who want to remain open to serve their customers but at the same time simply cannot afford to open their doors because of excessive penalty rates for their staff’’’.
‘‘Unless our political leaders are prepared to do something about these excessive penalty rates, cafes, restaurants and shops will remain closed and workers will miss out on wages,’’ he said.
Restaurants, cafes and bistros in NSW must list holiday surcharges on their menus as a percentage.
They do not have to provide a separate public holiday menu or price list or have a separate price column with the surcharge factored in as in previous years.
‘‘However, the menu must include the words ‘a surcharge of (percentage) applies on (the specified day or days)’ and these words must be displayed at least as prominently as the most prominent price on the menu,’’ states the NSW Fair Trading website.
Cafe Bella Dee — at 36 Tuffy Avenue, Sans Souci — will be open 8am to 3pm on Easter Monday.
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