By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
TORQUAY Traders are campaiging against new public holidays in Victoria.
Torquay Traders chair Barrie Sutherland said the group was gathering information from Surf Coast businesses about the impact of April’s extra Easter Sunday public holiday.
Many businesses closed on the Sunday to avoid losses from increased penalty rates for staff, he said.
“Businesses around here need the summer trade to see them through the winter season. Businesses are supposed to make a profit but many suffered a loss because of the extra holiday.
“We need to present a united front on this issue. We’re doing the research and collecting data to demonstrate the impact of the Easter weekend holiday.
“This is the first step in fighting the holidays because we’ll face it again at the grand final.”
State Government has also added the day before the AFL grand final to the list of the Victorian public holidays.
Shadow small business minister Neale Burgess said the two extra holidays had created a “giant mess”.
“For a town like Torquay it destroys business confidence,” he said.
“For many businesses there was no point in being open. Many business owners said they might as well shut and they did shut.”
Mr Burgess said the extra holidays had been added without business consultation or assessing the impact on small business.
“This has added 250 per cent to the costs for many small businesses. A hospitality business faces paying $55 an hour for someone to make coffee.
“Other business owners have tried to staff their shops themselves because they could not afford to pay staff and make a loss.
“And that just adds to the stress. Some business owners have been devastated, some have found the whole situation traumatic.
“The government wants small business to employ our young people but this works directly against that aim.”
Mr Burgess said businesses such as cafes faced capacity issues and could not absorb the extra cost.
