Canberra businesses have welcomed the Federal Court's decision to uphold reductions to penalty rates for retail and hospitality workers, saying it could lead to more jobs.
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But unions say the decision has left Canberra's least fortunate worse off.
A full panel of five Federal Court judges upheld the Fair Work Commission's decision to reduce penalty rates after it heard appeals by two unions, United Voice, which represents hospitality workers and the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, representing retail workers.
The Commission decided in June to phase in the cuts over four years for retail and pharmacy employees and over three years for hospitality and fast food workers.
The cuts will see penalty rates for a full time retail worker on a Sunday, for example, would see their pay rate cut over three years from 200 per cent to 150 per cent.
Duxton owner David Quinn said he hoped the decision would mean he could offer more shifts to his casual workers.
"It's good to see it's been resolved either way so the staff and businesses can move forward," he said.
"Hopefully it means I can roster more staff on weekends and public holidays.
"It means small businesses can give the local workers, causals and uni students the shifts that they are after in their spare time, meaning more shifts and hours for the workers."
Restaurateur Pasquale Trimboli said one reason his restaurants never opened on Sundays was pressure from penalty rates.
But he said he was unlikely to extend opening hours even with reduced rates, due to a mixture of cost pressures and maintaining the ability to have a balanced lifestyle.
Sweet Bones cafe owner Russell Brindley said while Sundays were often one of their busiest days, a quiet day could make it very costly to operate.
"I think the reduction will make Sunday trade slightly more viable for us, but most of our workers on the weekend are casual so there really isn't much adjustment," he said.
Canberra business chamber CEO Robyn Hendry said the decision to reduce penalty rates would help small Canberra businesses open on weekends.
"It really does reflect that things have changed from a time where we saw Sundays as a time where we were encouraged not to have commercial activity and encouraged to participate in religious activities," she said.
But United Voice ACT branch secretary Lyndal Ryan said they were angry and disappointed at the decision to uphold the cuts.
She said the decision was unfair and out of line with community expectations.
"We know that Canberra is an expensive place to live with lots of people who have higher than average wages," she said.
"If you're not so lucky it's hard to make ends meet.
"What Australian workers need is a wage increase not a pay cut.
"A system that is blind to the hardships of workers is one that needs reforms and needs fixing."
Ms Ryan said the union would be discussing its legal options with lawyers in the coming days.
The unions had argued the Fair Work Commission had failed to meet its legal obligations when it decided to reduce Sunday and public holiday penalty rates for hundreds of thousands of Australians.
In their decision on Wednesday, Federal Court Justices Anthony North, Richard Tracey, Geoffrey Flick, Jayne Jagot and Mordecai Bromberg said their role was not to review the merits or correctness of the Fair Work Commission's conclusions, but to ensure the Commission had made no error in performing its statutory task.
The judges rejected the argument that the Commission had failed to take into account the relative living standards and needs of the low paid as required by the Fair Work Act.
The Federal Court also rejected arguments that the Commission miscarried its responsibility to review awards based on an interpretation of words including "review" and "relevant" in the legislation.
