When Christmas Day becomes just another work day, you would have to say that the free market has finally spun out of control.
While it’s no surprise that big business tries to squeeze every last cent out of workers, we hope for something a little bit better from government. That’s why its so shocking that in some states, this Christmas won’t be a public holiday.
Since time immemorial civilisations have centred around core beliefs and values that shape their society. They tell us who we are and what we want to be. To celebrate and share these values, every culture has developed its own calendar of special and holy days.
In Australian culture, as with virtually all western civilisations, no day is more enshrined, anticipated and celebrated than Christmas.
To some it’s about Jesus, to some it’s about Santa, to some it’s about shopping. But for all of us, it’s a respite from the demands and distractions of day to day life and a sharing ritual with loved ones to remind us of the things we cherish.
While most of us spend the day with family or friends, at church, having a barbeque or playing a bit of backyard cricket – the demands of keeping society ticking over mean that some of us have to work.
Those people deserve to be duly compensated – and that’s why we have public holiday penalty rates.
It therefore defies belief that Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu and his South Australian counterpart Mike Rann have taken it upon themselves to effectively steal Christmas Day from workers this year by not gazetting December 25 as a public holiday.
The Governments have made the following Monday a public holiday, which is great for anyone rostered on that day, but it still means that thousands of Victorian and SA workers in hospitals, shops, cafes, public transport, security and other industries which operate around the clock and on Christmas Day are not entitled to refuse to work for family or religious reasons on the day.
It also means that in these two states – unlike the rest of the nation - these workers will not receive public holiday penalty rates and will only be paid what they normally would earn for working on a Saturday.
For Christians it goes without saying that Christmas is a time of immense spiritual and historical importance. And even for many a hardened atheist it is a dearly held opportunity to spend time with loved ones, recapture the joys of childhood and reflect on another year passed.
And while it is a truism that for many other religions and believers Christmas might be just another day – and that, like their own holy days, must of course be respected – it is equally true that Christmas is not just another day in Australia.
So if you’re catching the train to the beach, stop at a convenience store or are unfortunate enough to require medical treatment this Christmas, spare a thought for those who are at work because there may well be some place that they’d rather be.
Already we’ve seen an erosion of our family life, of our weekends and other public holidays and this has resulted in people being overworked, taking their work home with them spending less time with their husbands, wives, partners, parents and kids.
This alone threatens to fray a national fabric of fair pay, fair hours and workplace rights that has taken more than a century to achieve.
But now that Christmas Day itself has fallen prey to the cold calculations of the bean counters, it is vital that we stop and ask ourselves: Is this the society we want to be?
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