Fast-food restaurant stung for paying workers $11 an hour; SME support for Abbott government jumps post-budget: Midday Roundup

A fast-food restaurant in Bendigo in regional Victoria has been caught paying workers just $11 an hour because the employer thought that was the “going rate”.

The Fair Work Ombudsman uncovered the underpayment during a random audit of the business conducted as part of its national campaign targeting the hospitality industry.

Under the award the workers at the unnamed venue should have been receiving between $15.74 and $22.48 for normal hours and between $20.77 and $29.67 per hour on Sundays.

Collectively the workers at the restaurant were underpaid more than $8000, with individual amounts owed ranging from $582 to more than $3000.

The employer, who told Fair Work he was not aware of the industry award, minimum hourly rates or penalty rates, has since paid back all outstanding entitlements.

SME support for federal government jumps post-budget

Small business support for the federal government has “spiked” since the federal budget, according to data released by Sensis today.

The Sensis Business Index survey, released this morning, shows support among small and medium sized businesses for federal government policies almost doubled after May.

Sensis chief executive John Allan said about six times as many businesses thought the budget would benefit them as those who thought it would have a negative impact.

“There was a dramatic shift in opinions toward the federal government with those surveyed saying tax incentives, depreciation benefits and tax cuts will help their business,” Allan said.

The index, which reflects the views of 1000 small and medium businesses, also revealed business confidence increased by four points to +31 points for the quarter, more than double from a year ago.

On a net basis, confident businesses were found to be three times more supportive of federal government policies, the index found.

Local shares rally despite global falls

After a shaky start local shares have rallied following yesterday’s enormous losses, which represented the worst day for the Australian share market since the Global Financial Crisis.

Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, said this morning Australian investors could have been in for another day of selling after share prices were “slaughtered” in overnight trading.

“European markets dropped around 5%, and US markets outstripped even those drops at their opening, before rallying back to 3-4% falls,” McCarthy said.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was up 2.3%, rising 116 points to 5117.3 points at 12.01pm AEST. On Monday, the Dow Jones closed down 3.57%, falling 588.4 points to 15871.4 points.