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 Home News General
$27 pay rise a win for ACTU and low-paid workers31 October 2006The ACTU has welcomed the $27.36 a week increase for award wages announced by the Fair Pay Commission today saying the decision is a significant win for the ACTU and low-paid workers. The increase is a result of union advocacy and campaign pressure on the Howard Government over its new industrial relations laws. The ACTU had argued that an increase of at least $30 was required to ensure the real wage levels of more than 1.5 million award wage workers did not go backwards. The Howard Government and the business community severely criticised the ACTU for its stance but the ACTU has won the argument. The Fair Pay Commission awarded a smaller increase of just $22.04 a week to award wage workers earning more than $700 a week. ACTU Secretary Greg Combet said, we welcome this $27 a week increase for Australia's lowest paid workers. "The ACTU has argued that these workers needed an increase of at least $30 to ensure they did not slip further behind after their pay had been frozen by the Federal Government for 18 months. "The $27 awarded by the Fair Pay Commission comes close the benchmark that the ACTU and unions had set. The ACTU has won the argument on behalf of low paid workers and their families. "It is clear that the effective advocacy of the ACTU and Australian unions, and the pressure we have been able to put on the Government over its IR laws has played an important role in achieving this result. "With costs rising as they have been, low paid workers and their families desperately needed and deserved this increase and they have had to wait far too long to get it. "This decision is also a slap in the face for the Howard Government and business groups like the ACCI who have tried to argue for lower pay rises for award wage workers. "This decision vindicates every submission put by the ACTU to national wages cases over the past decade. In 10 years of minimum wage cases the Liberal Party and the Howard Government has never ever supported the union movement's claim for pay rises for the low-paid. "The problem with the system the Government has put in place that is secretive, unaccountable and too susceptible to political pressure. That is why the ACTU continues to believe that minimum wages in Australia should be set by the Independent Industrial Relations Commission," said Mr Combet. |
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© 2003 Health Services Union (HSU) |
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