28th July 2015

State Government Victoria

RE – Public Consultation on the proposed two new public holidays under the Public Holidays Act 1993

I am the managing director of Worboys Plumbing Pty Ltd who has been in the plumbing industry for over 90 years and I hope this RIS can give me chance to get an employer’s view across.

We employ 14 full time staff, with 4 of them being our own apprentices.

Every year (usually January) we start a new 1st year as the 4th year comes out of his time to give a young person a start and grow the industry.

A number of other specialised allied trade’s contractors are used in the course of our business.

I first thought the Andrews government promise of the 2 new holidays was an electoral ploy for votes and would go away as it was a ridiculous reason for holidays.

We already have 10 public holidays a year, 20 annual leave days, 13 RDOs and an average 4 to 8 sick/personal leave days.

Many of our maintenance contracts were locked in years ago and a lot of our clients will not accept rate increases to cover these holidays. I don’t know how the construction sector will manage as their projects run for years and most have not been allowed for them in their tendering.

The 2 holidays are different and should be looked at separately.

  1. Friday prior to the AFL Grand Final
  2. It is just ridiculous to have a holiday on this day, we don’t need it, (I love football) but it’s not warranted. It’s not even the day of the game.
  3. We have one for a horse race, that’s enough.
  4. We will lose at least $2,800 in direct wages and potentially $8,000 in productivity charges for the day.
  5. We have not had a chance to budget for these holidays.
  6. I talk to many people in our industry and nobody wants the holidays, employees think that it would be a joke for a holiday.
  7. A survey of employees shows the majority think it will not come in.
  8. The AFL are talking about moving the Friday parade because they think people will not go because they have the day off. That’s how much people value the day off to go to a parade.
  9. Easter Sunday
  10. This day doesn’t affect our business so much as we are not open on Sundays. Except for the additional penalty rates that would apply for call outs. These would however be passed onto the client/public.

There would be other industries that would benefit with the Sunday holiday such as the medical and retail industries that are open that day.

Left field questions:

a)Why do we have an Easter Monday holiday?

b)Is Easter Monday a religious day?

c)Isn’t Easter Sunday more religious than Easter Monday?

d)Swap Easter Monday public holiday to Easter Sunday and work Easter Monday?

Yours faithfully,

Peter Jensen
Managing Director

1