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End rural worker wage freeze!Date: 10 March 2008
AWU members in the rural sector want an end to the wage freeze imposed on them by the Howard Government created Fair Pay Commission. The rural sector is earning huge export dollars for our nation and employs more than 335,000 workers. With recent rains and strong commodity prices the outlook for the sector is the best in years. ABARE expects the sector to earn $31 billion in exports in 2008-09, but the outlook is threatened if workers do not get a fair go. " The union has made a submission to the Commission arguing the freeze should be lifted as soon as possible," AWU National Secretary, Paul Howes, said. " At the time the freeze was imposed on workers employed on farms which receive an interest rate subsidy in July 2007 it was widely condemned as being disappointing and backward looking. " The AWU agrees with ABARE's assessment that reliance on interest rate subsidies can impede decisions promoting more efficient and productive farming, promote excessive levels of debt and delay adjustment decisions. " The Fair Pay Commission's decision rewards bad farm management practices because it provides a blunt instrument for farmers to hit workers with. " This year's Minimum Wage Review should immediately lift the pay freeze imposed during the Howard years on these workers and their families," the AWU is arguing at the Fair Pay Commission. Why should workers have to wait until 1 October when the existing freeze expires? The AWU submission to the Australia Fair Pay Commission says the continuing freeze sends the wrong message to potential investors. " We need to start building for recovery in the farm sector. " Reliance upon a wages freeze is exactly the wrong message which the sector should be sending to its workers and potential workers. " The freeze will tempt more working families to move out of the farming sector into the higher paying jobs, often just down the road from the farm, in the mining sector," AWU National Secretary, Paul Howes, told the Commission in the union's submission.
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