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This week the Workplace Relations Sub-Committee met to discuss Workplace Relations reforms (including the Award Modernisation process). The Committee spent quite some time working on a next draft of a modern award. In addition to the next draft the Association is developing a vision of what the modernisation process should be able to achieve.

The Sub-Committee has agreed that the vision for the modern award is that :

Award coverage is able to be defined in clear statements that are consistent across the nation.
Schedules are collapsed into the Modern Award were possible.
All references in working hours, penalty rates and overtime sections of the award refer to the first five days of the working week and the sixth or seventh day (not Monday – Friday, Saturday and Sunday).
Consistent pay rates are established for each grade (at less than the maximum).
Apprentice and Training Rates are based on a combination of competency and work experience not simply time. These rates are collapsed into one set of rates.
A consistent schedule of Junior rates is established – from 17 – 21.
Part time arrangements are defined in terms of a consistent 3 – 38 hours averaged over 4 weeks and include specific provision for seasonal workers.
Arrangements for annualised salaries are included (if 25% over the award rate is paid) – without the capacity for a count back on hours worked.
A standard 20% casual rate applies.
Standard ordinary hours are defined as 38 hours per week. No time or day of the week based penalties apply.
Overtime is defined as each day stands alone, 1 ½ for the first two hours and double time after that – with no overtime for casuals.
The Association is currently drafting a submission that will reference each section of the draft award. The rationale for this submission is as follows:

These documents will need to be referred to in detail in a submission to the commission arguing for the establishment of a separate restaurant and catering modern award. It is proposed that the rationale for this submission is as follows:

· The Act requires that Modern Awards (must be simple to understand and easy to apply, and must reduce the regulatory burden on business; and together with any legislated employment standards, must provide a fair minimum safety net of enforceable terms and conditions of employment for employees; and must be in a form that is appropriate for a fair and productive workplace relations system that promotes collective enterprise bargaining but does not provide for statutory individual employment agreements; and must result in a certain, stable and sustainable modern award system for Australia).

· Restaurants and caterers are vastly different from Hotels in so far as their structures, their staffing arrangements and their operations.

· The hospitality sector is a rapidly growing sector and is part of the changing economy that is already 80% services and growing. Modern awards must eventually realize the demands of the modern world of round the clock service provision.

· Restaurants and catering businesses are small business in the main and have very few dedicated workplace relations resources. Simplicity and clarity are most important outcomes of the modernization process.

· In the pursuit of simple to understand and easy to apply awards, R&CA presents a draft modern award for restaurateurs and caterers.

· In the pursuit of the objectives of economic sustainability and efficient and productive work performance, the proposed modern ward is the status quo and does not seek to upset the careful balance of wages and conditions in the current system.

· The proposal for a draft modern award respects the differences in operational and revenue models across restaurants and the hotel / club sector. Restaurant and caterers are food businesses with significant structural and operation similarities. They have low margins and do not enjoy large profits for gaming supported by regulation in most States / Territories.

· In the interests of true modernisation the Association also presents a vision for what it believes the modernization process should achieve.

Landmark Kangaroo Island property the Ozone Seafront Hotel has been sold to a resort group with businesses in the Northern Territory. The hotel on the waterfront of Kingscote, the island’s main town, is on the site where the original was built in 1907 and rebuilt after a 1918 fire. The sale price was not disclosed but $4.5m was spent on a three-storey development entailing modern rooms and penthouse suites in 2006. The sale ends 21 years of ownership by South Australians Peter Turner, Bow Jude and the Lokan family. Most of that time the hotel has been managed by Chris and Debbie Schumann, who have yet to decide their future. The hotel has been bought by Aurora Hotels-Resorts-Attractions. The Advertiser (Australia), June 20.

Restaurant meals are off the menu as South Australian families prepare to tighten budgets in the new financial year, according to research. With housing, petrol and food costs soaring, the ING Direct Savings Census has found that 63 per cent of SA families plan to have fewer restaurant meals and 60 per cent say they will cut back on personal luxuries such as gym memberships and beauty treatments. It also found that 52 per cent plan to take fewer or less expensive holidays, 40 per cent will spend less on birthday gifts for family and friends and 72 per cent plan to use less power at home. The ING Direct report, released today, follows official data this month showing consumer confidence levels at a 16-year low, job numbers falling for the first time in 19 months and the value of new home loans falling 5 per cent. ING Direct executive director Lisa Claes said the rising cost of living was forcing families to forgo non-essential items. “With recent reports showing power wastage is surging, families are cutting back on those easier costs first, but life’s little luxuries are taking a hit with more than half of families planning to spend less on personal luxuries, restaurant meals and holidays,” Ms Claes said. Australian Hotels Association SA general manager Ian Horne said hotels and restaurants had felt the effects of lower consumer confidence in the first six months of this year. The Advertiser, June 23.

Sydneysiders who enjoy their food sprinkled with liberal doses of profanity will have to wait—controversial chef Gordon Ramsay has decided to open his first Australian restaurant in “hard-ass” Melbourne. Ramsay, who has spent the past four days in Sydney being feted by thousands of loyal fans, revealed yesterday he had chosen Melbourne to launch his assault on Australian tastebuds because of its long-standing food culture. “I’d like to open here. But I don’t think you open in Sydney before opening in Melbourne,” he said. “Melbourne is like New York. It has that culture of foodies that are finicky, hard-ass and very possessive about their city. Sydney’s a lot more relaxed. A lot more cosmopolitan and flashier.” The decision, which will involve Ramsay’s company investing millions of dollars in planning and construction of a new restaurant, follows years of speculation over when the Scottish-born chef would add an Australian venture to his expanding international empire. He estimates his first Australian restaurant will be open within the next 18 months and he will appoint a local chef to run it on a daily basis. “It’s about the chef. That’s the fundamental key ingredient. I’d be stupid not to employ a local Aussie.” Ramsay said there were significant differences in food style between the two cities and “you only have to look at the wine lists in terms of who orders what and the integrity that goes into it.” Ramsay has spent each night dining in Sydney’s finest restaurants and had been amazed by the quality and standards. “Australia is really up there,” he said. “Extraordinary stuff. Elegant. Simple, delicious.” He rated a dish of slowly-braised belly of pork at Aria and the wagyu beef at Guillaume at Bennelong as among his favourite dining experiences in Sydney. The Daily Telegraph, June 23.

Posh restaurants selling wine to patrons at more than three times the cost price have defended the mark-up as an industry standard needed to cover costs and make a small profit. Owners said they had to push up the prices to cover overheads, including wages, rent and advertising. And the high costs of buying and preparing food meant profits on meals were low, restaurateurs said. But wine experts accused owners of outrageous mark-ups, with some of Sydney’s top establishments adding as much $100 to the price. The Sun-Herald compared the prices of a number of Australian wines at some of the city’s top restaurants. The wines were randomly selected. At Aqua Dining at Milsons Point, a bottle of 2004 Shelmerdine Merindoc shiraz was listed at $134 a bottle. The restaurant’s supplier, Mezzanine, quoted the wholesale price (including tax) as $34.40. Aqua’s Bill Drakopoulos said he was not aware the wine had been marked up so much. “That is a bit high,” he said. “The reality is we are on the harbour. We need to make a profit.” At Pyrmont’s Flying Fish restaurant, a bottle of Shaw and Smith M3 chardonnay sells for $90. It costs $26.88 from Red+White. A bottle of 2005 Howard Park chardonnay is on the menu for $100. The price from distributor Negociants is $31.54. Flying Fish owner Peter Kuruvita said: “The industry standard is to mark up wine by about three times. One for rent, one for the purchases and the other for the profits. I don’t think anybody goes out there to rip anyone off.” The Sun Herald, June 22.

Up-market Perth restaurants have been forced to recruit wait staff from Europe and South America because of the State’s labour shortage, with bidding wars erupting between rival restaurants offering $30 an hour as part of generous salary packages. C Restaurant general manager Andrew Hemstock said most of the restaurant’s 80 table staff were French because he had been unsuccessful finding enough skilled locals, despite extensive advertising. Demand for wait staff had soared over the past year and it was now “open season” between restaurants, with many poaching staff from rival venues. To attract and retain staff he had abandoned casual employment in favour of salary packages that included bonuses, free meals, regular days off and team-building exercises such as paintball and football. “The employee most of the time is in a powerful position,” Mr Hemstock said. “They can walk out one door and straight in another door on the same day.” Jackson’s manager Kjell-Ove Almeland said the Highgate restaurant’s total salary package had increased 20 per cent over the past year. “We keep pinching people from other restaurants, especially in the fine-dining market,” Mr Almeland said. Jackson’s staff had also been approached by rivals. The West Australian (Perth), June 21

It was hard to turn around last week without hearing the name Gordon Ramsay about every half hour. It’s interesting to reflect that when the British mega-chef was last in Australia, in October 2006, he did cooking demonstrations and signings of his autobiography Humble Pie for a few hundred fans; last weekend an estimated 19,000 flocked daily to the Sydney Good Food and Wine Show, where Ramsay was the headline act. Such has been the success of the motor-mouth chef’s Kitchen Nightmares USA, shown this year on commercial television after languishing for years on Foxtel’s LifeStyle Food, that Ramsay has gone from cult hero to pop culture megastar in months. In the chef’s own parlance, “a-mazing”. Ramsay has also been sourcing sites in Australia for potential restaurants he hopes to open later this year. It’s hard to see where he got the time to fit in show appearances, media commitments, dinners at flash restaurants, late nights at expensive bars, and jaunts around Sydney to look at empty restaurant spaces. Acting Food Detective’s spy reveals that Ramsay would like to open in both Sydney and Melbourne, and has a shortlist of two sites in the NSW capital he’s seriously considering. In Melbourne, it’s probable the venue will squeeze into the already crowded Crown Complex with Channel Nine filming a reality show about the opening of the restaurant and the search for a high-quality young head chef for the venture. Ramsay let slip that the food he wants to bring to Australia will not be of the three-Michelin star variety he pursues in his top European establishments. Weekend Australian, June 28.

Rising fuel costs and cheap imported prawns have crippled Queensland’s active trawlers, devastating the fishing industry. Lou Robson reports. Michelle West isn’t happy. The official spokeswoman of the Sunshine Coast trawler fleet walks Mooloolaba wharf in a black overcoat, her gold teeth flashing as she discusses Queensland’s ailing fishing industry. The trawler owner is agitated and pulls at her locket, a jewelled prawn, as she explains how rising fuel prices and cheap imported prawns have crippled the state’s 220 active boats. These factors, the former deckhand says, have made fishing unaffordable and could spark a national seafood strike. “Why do you think all these boats are here?” Ms West said, gesturing at 15 moored vessels. “We can’t afford to go to sea because of fuel costs, and even if we could no one would buy the product when we got back. “It’s a bad situation and something has to be done.” According to Ms West, the state’s trawlers have hit an all-time low. Many of the once-busy boats lie dormant, owners of the long-line tuna vessels, crab, fish and prawn boats unable to afford diesel because they can’t sell their prawns. It seems no one wants to pay more than $30 a kilogram for fresh, local produce when they could buy farmed Asian imports for about $11/kg. The Sunday Mail (Brisbane), June 29.

Australia’s latest superchef Sean Connolly got quite a surprise when he put a $450 caviar appetiser on his menu at Astral restaurant in Sydney recently. Diners swooped on the rare treat and he had to rush in fresh supplies from Paris. “There are people who come in and order it for themselves for their entrée—even though it is a starter for two,” he said. Excess knows few bounds in Sydney as Yorkshire-born Connolly, 40, has discovered. Astral, meanwhile, has been named the best restaurant in the country for the third year running at the Australian Hotels’ Association awards. It’s hard not to be impressed. The restaurant is on the 17th floor of Star City Casino with 270-degree views of inner Sydney down past The Rocks to the famous bridge and over to Anzac Bridge and Botany Bay. The Courier Mail (Brisbane), June 28.