Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, October 17th, 2007 - 47 comments
Categories: workers' rights -
Tags: workers' rights
A new report (PDF) by the University of Sydney shows Aussie workers are doing markedly worse under a Howard government.
His desperate bid to buy them back this week with the offer of tax cuts doesn’t address the deep unfairness they’re being subjected to by his doublespeak-ish “Work Choices” legislation.
The Australia@Work study, published this month, surveyed more than 8000 workers and concluded that those on Howard’s individual work contracts earned on average $106 a week less than those on collective agreements.
Howard’s “Work Choices” legislation is a lot like National’s Employment Contracts Act of the 90s. It’s designed to abolish collective bargaining and undermine the rights of workers. In Australia it has allowed bosses to cut overtime payments, public holiday pay, maternity leave and meal breaks.
To add insult to injury it looks likely that Aussie workers will now be subjected to further steep interest rate rises as a result of Costello’s cynical bid to buy back their votes.
The ABC reports that his tax cuts “will make the Reserve Bank nervous and could push interest rates higher”. A senior economist is quoted as saying “It certainly means interest rates would be higher than they would otherwise be… I cannot imagine were it not for an election the Treasurer would be contemplating these tax cuts of this order.”
There have already been five interest rate rises since the last Australian election and mortgage repayments are up sharply there – somewhere in the order of $65 a week on average.
The combination of tax-cut fueled interest rate rises and draconian employment relations legislation makes things look decidedly grim for workers across the Tasman.
If I was a worker there I’d see Howard’s tax cuts for what they are: a desperate attempt from a government trailing in the polls – in large measure as a direct result of its unrelenting, decade-long assault on the rights of workers.
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Nih
No, not everything is a sign of corruption. But should I just read that report (sponsored by the unions) or should I compare my time there under the Hawke Govt, my time there during the transition, or my more recent experiences under Howard?
Spin it how you like, it’s been good in some areas, it’s been bad in others. But the bottom line is that that the flow of trained people is flowing in one direction and has been ever since they did something silly and started to pay better salaries and tax less.
There’s a vast pay gap between skilled white-collar jobs and factory floor employees.
Burt, you’ve posted a suggestion that the ARC and/or UnionsNSW are partial and that their partiality influences this report – did you plan to back that up? Are you actually across the report and/or its methodology (or for that matter the approval process)? I am.
What a frankly soft response to the findings. The Liberals could have responded in numerous ways but instead they decided to declaim the obvious – how unbelievably stupid. Are you looking for a conga line of suckholes? If so, I think you’ve found it.
Union density seems to be falling everywhere really except for Finland and Sweden.
See page 45 (8 of 12).
( Union Memberships )
So we can’t replicate the Irish model because… Oh I know – they have tax cuts and they are racing along. Aussie model, no tax cuts and growing well, Oh I know, lets pick a model thats working under completely different economic conditions that we cannot replicate.
We can’t emulate Ireland because most of our population is stupid. If we’d had 300 years of bar-room Darwinian evolution we’d all be ruthlessly intelligent as well.
Also, the captcha has just had me transcribe a medical term for “penis”. Dirty, dirty captcha.
“There’s a vast pay gap between skilled white-collar jobs and factory floor employees.”
There’s are a word in that sentence that is the entire reason behind it.
Skilled.
(Okay, maybe I’m being a tad pernicious. ‘Factory floor employees’ have to have certain training and skills to operate specialist machinery – and more power to them. But the ‘white collar jobs’ have to (more often than not) obtain a tertiary (i.e. NOT Whitirea) qualification in order to get into that job.)
It’s not me, it’s the reality out there.
Also Nih, can I question your choice of language in that sentence? Why white collar ‘job’ and factory floor ‘employee’? Why not apply worker, job, employee, position or staff to both?
I am honestly interested to know.
Do you even have a serious question?
Some people troll. Others try to be cunning about it but fall into the trap that they’re asking a serious question AND trolling.
This is self-deception. You’re not coming across as half as smart as you think you are.
Nih,
It was an honest-to-god question.
I am trying to be a serious commenter. I put, what I consider to be, an honest question across and all I get back is abuse (albeit, without coarse language – I can at least thank you for that!).
Are you seriously questioning the interchangeability of language? I try my ass off not to use the same words more than once and I get questioned for it? Don’t be so boring! I don’t think I’ve ever lept down D4J’s throat for his atrocious grasp of english. Sort of sets a standard for you to aim for, don’t you think?
As for your other question, my comment was in response to burt alluding that the brain-drain was an indication that the study was incorrect. I was pointing out that the study and the brain drain target different areas of employment. Your question did expand on my point though.
Matt/rOb
In the Australian context, or more particularly the NSW context, the specific barriers to labour market participation faced by the not-engaged cohort are not strictly wage related, they’re access to childcare, lack of skills, changes to industry (skill redundancy) and tax disincentives (the family tax credit drops out too low).
There’s been lots of recent work in NSW on strategies for improving participation for different groups – most recently by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal – a link to the report, which focused on improving the quantity and quality of skilled labour is here – http://www.ipart.nsw.gov.au/investigation_content.asp?industry=5§or=current&inquiry=94&doctype=7&doccategory=1&docgroup=1
Also, the Tribunal commissioned a useful piece of work that examined the mismatch between the supply of skills and demand/utilisation – this is here http://www.ipart.nsw.gov.au/files/NCVER Final Report – Matching skills and development opportunities in NSW – 31 July 2006 – Website Document.PDF
Always happy to talk through these issues – no single intervention will address the problem of course which is why the Nat’s tax mantra is so frustrating.
The second link may not work – access to the report is available via the first link (go to consultants reports).
Thanks mardypants…