Industrial relations
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The minimum wage decision, inflation and the low paid
The Real Unit Labour Cost is presently 20 per cent lower than it was in 1986 meaning the growth in productivity gains to employers has been substantially higher than the growth in real wages. Continue reading »
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Agriculture industry condemned to becoming a growing centre for exploitation and abuse
The Senate report on temporary migration makes many excellent recommendations, but also misses opportunities. Continue reading »
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BossKeeper: ports giant Qube bullies its way into JobKeeper and plush bonuses
Shipping group Qube Holdings will give back $17m in JobKeeper subsidies but pockets $13.5m and some fancy executive bonuses despite its revenue rising strongly. How did it pull this off? Callum Foote investigates how the Liberal Party-linked Qube gamed the Tax Office. Continue reading »
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Porter’s IR bill: ‘tearing a gaping hole in the award safety net’
The government’s Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill before parliament was drafted at the end of a six-month consultative process that brought together employer and employee representatives to chart what the prime minister hoped would be “a practical reform agenda, a job making agenda”. Continue reading »
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Farmworker exploitation a systemic issue
The continuing problem of underpayment of farmworkers is not simple. It will not go away. It certainly will not go away by adopting the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) bubble tunnel of workers from New Zealand or other ships in the worker solution. Continue reading »
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Coalition’s war on casual workers a harbinger for assault on permanent workers
The workplace abuses of the 18th and 19th centuries have returned under the guise of the gig economy. The Morrison government has now proposed sweeping changes to labor laws that will cut wages, entrench precarious work, cripple unions and hand dictatorial power to bosses. But if the IR bill becomes law, permanent workers will also Continue reading »
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Bad Gig: industrial relations “reform” bill delivers flexibility … for employers
When one-third of casuals work full-time hours, almost 60% have been with their employer for more than a year, and more than half cannot choose the days they work, is the “flexibility” of a casual job really for the benefit of employees? Continue reading »
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BRIAN LAWRENCE. The Government’s tax package and Labor’s response: the perspective of a cleaner
The Government’s tax package is unfair to low paid workers. In response, the Labor Opposition has just announced that it will support Stage 1 of the package, within which is embeded much of that unfairness. How might we reduce the unfairness? Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Corporate failure in Australia. They just don’t get it.
There is a growing and unfortunate litany of corporate failures in Australia – and not just the banks and energy suppliers. There is wage theft on a large scale. Instead of addressing their own obvious failures the BCA accuses its critics of business bashing and waging class war. As Warren Buffett put it ‘there is Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. We are paying an enormous price to keep Christopher Pyne in Parliament
The Coalition Government ended our car manufacturing industry which had an Effective Rate of Protection of 8%. It employed 200,000 people. We are told by the Government that the void in SA will be filled by building the new French submarines in Adelaide. The won’t. There will be only about 2000 new jobs in SA Continue reading »
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JERRY ROBERTS Bill Shorten, Chris Bowen, Steve Bannon and the TPP
When Bill Shorten on camera announced that Labor would support the TPP he looked like a schoolboy telling the teacher that the dog ate his homework. Bill knew his excuse was phony. Will the TPP be the issue that finally forces the ALP back to the labour movement or will the Party fudge its way Continue reading »
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BHIM BHURTEL. Nepal looks toward China as a measure of last resort
After an exchange of high-level trips between Nepal and India, Nepalese Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli is to land in Beijing on Tuesday for a five-day state visit. It will be his second state visit since his accession to the Prime Minister’s Office after his party’s landslide victory in the general election in November. Continue reading »
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JOHN WARHURST. The Coalition’s special disrespect for unions.
The raid on the offices of the Australian Workers Union by the Australian Federal Police demonstrates a disrespect for trade unions contrary to the Catholic tradition. Since the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891, Catholic Social Teaching has recognised the right of workers to join together collectively in unions as an important element of the Continue reading »
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ALLAN PATIENCE. Base politics or incredibly clumsy policing?
Police raids on political parties or associated institutions at any time should raise concerns – and the hackles – among democratically minded citizens. The recent raids on AWU offices in Sydney and Melbourne, seemingly in search for “dirt” on Bill Shorten’s time as head of the Union, should be ringing alarm bells. Are the police Continue reading »
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NAISHAD KAIN-REN. Saudi Arabia’s Footprints in Southeast Asia
Saudi Arabia’s increased influence in Muslim-majority countries will have wider ramifications for ASEAN. Continue reading »
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STEPHEN LONG. Reserve Bank boss Philip Lowe urges workers to push for pay rises
It wasn’t quite Karl Marx, but, for a central bank boss, it was heady stuff: The Reserve Bank governor, no less, exhorting workers to demand higher pay rises. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WALKER. Three strategies unions are considering for their survival
There are three strategies unions, in danger of lsing their relevance, can consider for their survival: Teaming up with other community groups, aligning with particular professions and finding members online. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. 457 visas and our temporary residence system.
In light of government announcement on 457 visas, I have reposted below an article originally posted on 18 November 2016. See also at end, a link to an article by Joanna Howe in The Canberra Times yesterday. John Menadue. Oversight of the management of work rights of temporary entrants into Australia is broken and needs Continue reading »
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WAYNE McMILLAN. David versus Goliath: reform and reinvention (Part 2 of 2)
What Sally McManus’s is saying is correct, I agree with her conclusions about what has happened to workers over the last 30 years and what is becoming intolerable now in 2017. Across Australia in 2017, little or no wage growth, increased working hours, increases in casual jobs, a decrease in full time meaningful work, rising Continue reading »
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WAYNE McMILLAN. David and Goliath: One step forward, two steps back. (Part 1 of 2)
Malcom Turnbull’s recent comment that he couldn’t work with Sally McManus the recently elected Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is just another excuse against strong union representation for ordinary waged workers. Continue reading »
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DAVID PEETZ. How tax minimisation affects CEO pay
Firms whose executives behave ‘unethically’, as proxied by not paying any company tax, are also likely to pay their CEOs an average of around a fifth more than firms of similar size and circumstances who do pay company tax. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Brexit, Trump and the Lucky Country – Introduction
John Menadue – introduction to Ian McAuley Series. Many have been surprised and even horrified by the Brexit and Trump results. These events are likely to be followed by similar outcomes in elections in other countries this year. Serious issues have been raised – a wave of anti-globalisation, an alleged swing to the right, blaming Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Brexit, Trump and the Lucky Country 1 – Who’s been left behind?
In “developed” countries the benefits of 35 years of economic growth have been unevenly distributed. Many people who once had well-paid manufacturing jobs and many who live in the country have fallen behind. While this has been most starkly manifest in the US, it is also happening in Australia. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Brexit, Trump and the Lucky Country 3 – Globalization takes the rap, unfairly
Globalization has been only one of the developments that has led to widening inequality and social exclusion. Countries that have globalized have also introduced a raft of neoliberal domestic policies, against which people are reacting. Continue reading »
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BOB KINNAIRD. Indian IT professionals on rock bottom 457 wages undermine Turnbull’s ‘innovation’ dream
The Coalition’s cheap labour 457 visa wage policy is destroying jobs for young Australians lured into studying IT courses under the Turnbull government’s high profile ‘Innovation’ push… Indian 457 visa IT workers are being approved at much lower rates than experienced Australian IT professionals and even new IT graduates. Continue reading »
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DAVID PEETZ. The battle over the Building and Construction Commission isn’t finished yet
Now that the ABCC will mostly be a mere shadow of its former self, the Building Code becomes an even more important point of distinction. … It is the identity and ideology of the Director of the ABCC that matters a lot more than the underpinning legislation. Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull will do anything to secure an outcome.
Malcolm Turnbull’s experience in negotiation has been in the boardroom of Goldman Sachs, but the atmosphere of the Senate crossbench is more akin to that of the Istanbul Souk. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Holden cars, AWA TVs, Chesty Bonds underwear: Manufacturing and globalisation
Ian McAuley argues that it has not been globalisation and trade that has been the biggest factor displacing jobs in manufacturing. It has been automation. Continue reading »
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TIM HARCOURT. Trump, Trade and jobs
Australia needs to remember that embracing open markets can only be done with well developed market institutions and social safety nets. Whether you love or loathe the President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump can get an economic policy issue media attention, as well as himself. Take the issue of trade and jobs, for example. Continue reading »
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DAVID PEETZ. An industrial relations furphy.
The media excitement surrounding the theatrics of former Senator Bob Day and current Senator Rod Culleton seemed to obscure the real issues facing the federal government’s industrial relations legislation. The government failed to put bills re-establishing the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC), and a new, government-appointed Registered Organisations Commission, onto the notice paper for Continue reading »
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