Crown Casino staff will march demanding weekend wages

Today, Crown’s games dealers, restaurant workers, security guards and hotel staff will take to the streets.

Australia.- Tonight, Crown’s games dealers, restaurant workers, security guards and hotel staff will take to the streets and march on the Southbank complex amid deadlocked negotiations for a new pay deal.

For the first time in 13 years, Crown Casino is facing a protest as hundreds of gaming and hospitality workers prepare to battle over weekend wages. Around 5500 Crown gaming and hospitality workers are expected to join the demonstration.

Delegates representing the 5500 Crown workers have been scrapping over the terms of a new wage deal since April. However, the agreement recently knocked back at 2.75 percent wage rise offer as delegates continue to fight for better pay for late-night and “graveyard” overnight shifts on weekends.

According to Union officials, Crown Melbourne staff work at least 40 weekends a year. Despite this fact, Crown Melbourne workers are paid the same rates regardless of when they work. Now they are calling for new allowances of up to AUD3 (€2.07) an hour for all weekend shifts that falls between 7pm and 7am.

The Crown workplace dispute is the latest to erupt in Australia over the issue of weekend pay. The protest comes just weeks before the Fair Work Commission, which will deliver a much-anticipated ruling on whether to slash loadings across several industries nationally.

On the other hand and as per the Crown workplace agreement, employees get paid higher wages than the award and the casino is exempted of paying weekend and overnight penalty rates.