Schools are closed on those two days. Parents + children together make a family. Society is based on families - not money.

Ian, Your argument is loud and clear. Unfortunately clarity and logic do not apply to this area.

I suspect change will come after a catastrophe, especially a manufactured one. Say all the cafes/restaurants just stop opening on a Sunday.

Regards
DKit

This ia madness, the author needs to take a bex and lay down. What's next an attack on the 8 hour day?
Why not lower the working age to 5 and get the kiddies into the mines.

As the first poster said, most people are not interested and defined by their working life.

Using farmers as an example is a great one, the working hours of farmers is one of the main reasons why Farmers average age is nearly 60.

Obviously the author is a contractor, which should include rates above that of weekend wage earners?
Therefore, his comparisons just don't line up?
Restaurants etc, can stay open all hours, if they just include family members as Saturday or Sunday staff!
As a single contractor, he still needs to keep enough freeboard to include routine maintainence and replacement!
The author is lucky inasmuch, he is still able bodied and therefore still able to work, perhaps until he is seventy or eighty?
Thankfully, we have eliminated child labor, at least here.
And I forget when we finally won the forty hour week, at least here!
And we have eliminated slavery, at least here!
Various surveys have concluded we Australians are the most productive, and work the most unpaid overtime in the OECD!?
What does the author really want, more of the same?
And he mentions he boosts his income!
I hope he declares it, or should the ATO, just deem he earns more than the average male worker?
And that would be as easy as getting and using a valid order, to tap his phone to register his level of business?
Or failing that, get some photo evidence of him at the bowser, over 2-3 months, filling his vehicle and containers with fuel!
Data that can then be dissected and then used to assume his additional untaxed income?
I just live for the day, when all assets, including the family home, are included in the pension assets and means test!
Perhaps then, the Author will have no choice but to keep on working till he drops!
Rhrosty.

The previous comments are spot on. Even if they have no religious convictions, to maintain their mental health and live up to their family responsibilities, people need to have time off at the same time as their family and friends. Yes, there may be cases where the need for money or to grow a business has to take priority, but it is one thing for a partner in the business, who can expect a share of the profits, to work on weekends and quite another for someone to do it for nothing more than a very basic wage.

Do Ian Nance's employees have a genuine choice? The ABS uses a very restricted definition of unemployment, but according to Roy Morgan Research, real unemployment, as of last April is 10.4% on top of an underemployment rate of 8.5%. Due mostly to government immigration policy, we have been acquiring 5 new people for every new full-time job

http://www.smh.com.au/national/majority-of-new-jobs-go-to-migrants-20130614-2o9p4.html

With this level of desperate competition, it will no doubt be possible to find people who will work on weekends for no penalty rates or give Ian Nance unpaid overtime, but why should this sort of exploitation be allowed in a decent society?

Penalty rates are good and proper: these are an attempt to mitigate the assault of modernity, supporting the values of Sabbath and family.

However, it is not good and not proper to force them on others through the violent mechanism of the state and legislation.

Dear Rhrosty,

<<Restaurants etc, can stay open all hours, if they just include family members as Saturday or Sunday staff!>>

Obviously, family situations are so different than "industrial" situations, but does the law recognise it? Does anyone here know whether or not family businesses are currently exempt from IR laws?

As a very young bloke, I was a life saver, & of course we needed our weekends off. Then I raced cars, always on a week end, as were the sailing boat races I next played at.

I then spent years playing with tourist boats in the Whitsundays. Thank god for digital watches, with out them in that 7 days environment, you would never have known what day of the week it was. That is essential to know whether to go to the under water observatory or the outer reef today.

I was utterly amazed to see that the fools in the cities, with their very civilized 5 day week wanted the supermarkets open 7 days & half the night.

What idiots, first the check out chicks, then them, what ever they do. Every one is heading 24/7, except the public servants. They will remain on just 3 hours every few days or so of course.

Hell you now don't even know what day it is by when they play football. What is this world coming to.

It must have increased the cost of everything for the big boys & thus us. People are only going to buy so much food. Taking an extra 4 hours a day, & a day & a half extra to sell it means more staff & power bills to pay. If ever a people have shot themselves in the foot with their demands, this is it.

So yes we pay the penalty for so called convenience, & the employers pay the penalty rates. People believe we are now a sophisticated society. Well that may be so depending on your perspective, but we sure as hell "aint" a smart one.

I have worked 'penalty shifts' all my working life, as have all nurses, doctors, ambulance staff, hospital staff etc.
It has never affected my family life.
If you believe in gods, you can surely pray to them any day?

If some people enjoy shopping or eating out at all hours of the day and night, and others need a job and don't mind working all hours of the day or night, then surely it is a win win situation?

I don't see a problem at all, as long as the penalty rates remain in place.
If they don't, you won't want to get sick after hours...