Liam Mitchell
"Billy", who features in the federal Coalition government's WorkChoices booklet promoting its planned industrial relations "reforms", has to sign an individual contract (Australian Workplace Agreement) to get a job. He is currently unemployed, but is happy with an AWA that will give him no penalty rates or allowances because it gives him "a foot in the door".
The government's own propaganda admits employers can offer job seekers AWAs with inferior conditions to existing awards. In fact, "Billy" has just lost his public holidays, rest breaks, bonuses, annual leave loadings, allowances, penalty rates and shift and overtime loadings. But at least his minimum wage is "protected by law"!
However, as opinion polls show, millions of workers can see through the government's TV propaganda ads that claim a "strong economy means more jobs and higher wages". A glance at the key economic statistics tells as that the wages share of GDP is at an all-time low, while the share going to company profits is at an all-time high — the profit share is 27.2% of GDP, while the wages share is 53.2%. That is, while the monetary value of the annual output of goods and services has been increasing, workers' share of this output has been falling. So how confident can we be that the IR changes will increase our real wages, and the amount of goods and services we can actually buy with our pay?
In fact, the proposed new IR laws are designed to do the opposite. As new people are hired by employers, or workers are forced to change jobs, AWAs with inferior conditions to those in existing awards will become the norm, putting pressure on those on higher wages to take less so as to retain their jobs.
Getting a foot in the door won't help Billy, as his current conditions won't improve and he is just as likely to be forced to sign an AWA with appalling conditions for his next job.
If the government was serious about making sure our wages and conditions do not deteriorate, it would make sure that businesses could not force Billy and those in the same boat to sign AWAs that contain lower pay rates and conditions than existing awards. Instead, under the government's planned new IR laws, any new AWAs will no longer have to be checked for parity of conditions.
We are being told that union membership and collective agreements won't be made illegal, although many items currently in collective agreements will be. For instance, pattern bargaining by unions, used particularly in the construction industry, where there are thousands of small employers (sub-contractors) to deal with, will be illegal.
However, employers are being encouraged to pattern bargain. The website of the government's Office of the Employment Advocate (OAE) contains templates for AWAs, already written up. The Howard government has made it clear that bosses can get away with not paying entitlements and only paying the minimum wage, as in the case of Billy.
The government has stacked the new Fair Pay Commission against workers. The government recently appointed right-wing economist Professor Ian Harper as the FPC's head. Harper is on record as saying that the minimum wage should not be tied to the cost of living, the basis of the 1907 Harvester judgement, which established the "living wage principle".
The FPC will set the minimum wage and casual loadings, as well as minimum wages for award classification levels, juniors, trainees and apprentices and workers with disabilities. It will set new guidelines on apprentice and trainee wages, making it possible for employers to take on apprentices on a part-time basis. Decisions of the commission will not be able to be appealed or challenged in any court.
PM John Howard and his workplace relations minister, Kevin Andrews, oppose increases in the minimum wage. Andrews has said that it is currently $70 per week too high, and the government's own list of considerations in setting a minimum wage does not mention a "liveable" wage.
[Liam Mitchell is a member of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Socialist Alliance.]
From Green Left Weekly, November 2, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.