WAGES GROWTH AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AT RECORD LOWS

The latest Department of Jobs and Small Business Trends in Enterprise Bargaining report provides more evidence of the damaging impact of the Turnbull Government’s attacks on workers and abandonment of workplace relations reform.  

Turnbull continues to preside over record low wages growth and the free-fall of enterprise bargaining – and he has no plans to deal with these serious problems.

According to the latest data, wages growth in enterprise agreements approved in the September quarter fell to 2.2 per cent, down from 3.4 per cent in the September quarter 2016.  

The data shows that for private sector agreements approved in the September quarter, wage rises hit a 25 year low of 2.4 per cent.  Wages rises for public sector agreements were also historically low, at 2.0 per cent.  

 

In addition to low wages growth, there were only 642 approved enterprise agreements in the September quarter, the lowest since 1995.

 

Labor understands that dwindling bargaining power of workers and their representatives, which the Government is facilitating, is a central part of subdued wages growth and rising inequality. The data released today is more confirmation, if any was needed, of this link.

Labor is seriously concerned that the Turnbull Government is incapable of addressing consistently flat wages growth – and in fact they’re making things worse by cutting the penalty rates of Australia’s lowest paid workers and by their abject failure to address the decline in enterprise bargaining.

The recent appointment of Craig Laundy as Minister is further proof that the Turnbull Government has no interest in reforming the system to benefit workers.  Mr Laundy’s approach to workplace relations makes this clear:

He was the director of a number of companies that put in place WorkChoices agreements that the FWC had to throw out because they were fundamentally unfair;

He paid workers under the minimum Award rate;

He has argued for cuts to penalty rates at every opportunity; and has voted in support of those cuts 8 times.

Turnbull and his Liberals need to understand that  increasing taxes on seven million working Australians while giving a tax cut to millionaires, will not increase wage growth.