Union Welcomes AIRC Wage Stance

Date: 12 August 2002

Low paid workers have received a flow-on pay rise of $18 a week and the AIRC has admitted that correcting wage injustice in Victoria requires legislative changes.

In an unprecedented move, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) today called on the Federal and State Parliaments to correct the discrimination of the Howard Governments industrial laws as they applied to Victorian workers.

In its decision on the 2002 Victorian State Wages Case the Full Bench of the AIRC acknowledged that Victorian workers without a federal award were disadvantaged when compared to Federal Award workers in the State and all other workers in Australia.

The AIRC also found that its hands are tied in seeking to adequately correct this disadvantage by the current Federal industrial relations laws and encouraged the bringing forward of legislation to address this disadvantage. The Bracks Government has recently announced that it will bring forward legislation in the spring session of Parliament to allow comprehensive federal award conditions and allowances to apply to all non-federal award workers in Victoria.

Secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council, Leigh Hubbard said, 'We call on the Liberal Party at both federal and state levels to also acknowledge this discrimination and agree to implement the sensible proposals of the Bracks Government. Victorian workers without the refuge of a federal award are regulated under Schedule 1A and Part XV of the Commonwealth Workplace Relations Act 1995 and are guaranteed only a minimum rate of pay and four other minimal conditions: four weeks annual leave, five days sick leave, unpaid parental leave, notice upon termination.

Latest figures show that 1.1 million Victorians are subject to at least the twenty allowable matters of federal awards, while approximately 560,000 Victorians are entitled to the inferior conditions of Schedule 1A. Around 230,000 of them receive only the minimum hourly rate of pay and the four other conditions.

'Most Schedule 1A workers do not have access to overtime rates, public holiday penalties, shift allowances, paid parental leave, carers leave, jury service leave, bereavement leave or many of the other conditions of employment all other workers in Australia take as a given.'

The AIRC decision today granted the flow-on of the recent $18 per week Living Wage Case increase in federal awards to Victorian workers with an operative date of 9 August 2002, one week earlier than the operative date last year.

For a number of technical reasons the AIRC rejected a VTHC claim for $25 per week (compared to the $18) to partially compensate for the disadvantage suffered by these Victorian workers.

'Schedule 1A workers don't want any special treatment, just to be treated equally with every other worker in Australia when it comes to the basic terms and conditions of employment they can rely upon. There are a number of proposals in State Parliament and an inadequate proposal in the Federal arena to address these issues,' said Leigh Hubbard.

For further information

Union:	Labor Council of NSW
WWW:	http://vthc.org.au/media/trades_hall_news/20020807_state.html

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