By MATT NICHOLLS
WHILE the majority of Armidale’s retail sector enjoyed a break of the Easter and Anzac Day weekends, newsagents Rod and Amanda Carr closed their doors for just one day.
Carr’s Newsagency in the mall was shut on Good Friday, but traded every other day.
The only other day they get off in the year is Christmas.
“We don’t complain too much because we’ve doing it for 15 years and knew what we were signing up for,” Mr Carr said.
Last week the Australian Newsagents’ Federation said penalty rates were hurting small businesses.
Chief operating officer Adam Joy called for a more “common sense approach” to pay rates on public holidays.
“Newsagents have contractual obligations to publishers to deliver their products and limited scope to change set prices, despite the additional cost,” Mr Joy said.
The ANF surveyed more than 350 of its members over Easter to find out how many were working penalty rates themselves to reduce costs.
The results found that 92 per cent of newsagents worked every Saturday, 87 per cent of those worked every Sunday, 92 per cent worked every public holiday and more than half (57 per cent) started work before 5am.
Mr Carr said he and his wife almost always worked exclusively on public holidays to reduce staff costs.
“If it was time-and-a-half and not double time-and-a-half we could take the day off,” he said.
The ANF’s survey said 96 per cent of newsagents would give more shifts to staff if penalty rates were less and 85 per cent said they would employ more staff.
