Canberra props up Abbott's AWA claim

Date: 30 March 2001

ACTU Secretary Greg Combet said that average AWA individual contract pay outcomes released by the ABS yesterday were artificially inflated by the Federal Government's policy of making senior public service executives on big performance bonuses sign AWAs.

Mr Combet described attempts by Federal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott to use the figures as evidence of the relevance of the Federal Government's failed AWAs as misleading and deceptive.

"Mr Abbott is trying to fiddle the numbers to hide the fact that, except for a few high-paid senior executives in the public service, his Government's individual contracts have delivered nothing for Australian workers but lower pay and less job security," said Mr Combet.

The ABS data shows that while just 1% of Australian workers are on the Federal Government's AWA individual contracts introduced by Peter Reith back in 1996, Canberra has both the highest proportion of employees on AWAs and the highest average weekly earnings for those on AWAs.

"When you take out the high-paid Canberra bureaucrats and look at non-managerial earnings, what you see is that employees on union collective agreements earn an average of $100 a week more than those on Tony Abbott's individual contracts. These people not only get paid less, they also work longer hours."

According to the ABS, non-managerial full-time employees on collective agreements had average total weekly earnings of $860.80, while those on individual contracts like AWAs averaged just $760.50.

"Tony Abbott's smoke and mirrors trick is nothing more than an attempt to cover up the abject failure of the Howard Government's push for AWA individual contracts. The facts continue to show that the most effective way for Australian workers to secure decent pay, job security and conditions is by bargaining collectively with the support of a union." ENDS

For further information

Contact:	George Wright
Union:	ACTU
Phone:	0396635655
Contact Mobile:	0419 556 616
Fax:	03 9663 8220
WWW:	http://www.actu.asn.au/

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