ACTU – Greedy big business pays for ads instead of pay rises

28 March 2018

The Australian Council of Trade Unions has urged big business to pay their fair share of tax, and give working people a fair pay rise and more secure work, rather than lobbying government for special treatment and cash handouts.

The BCA’s adverts, and the government’s unsuccessful attempt to give corporate Australia a $65 billion handout, confirm that big business in Australia has too much power.

Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:

• “Big business in Australia is simply greedy. While profits are booming, wages have flat-lined, and 40 percent of Australian workers are in insecure jobs.
• “Big business wants a cash handout from taxpayers, they refuse to increase people’s wages, and many are engaged in a race to the bottom on job security.
• “The Turnbull government has done everything it can for big business, fuelling more insecure work, and cutting penalty rates for many low-paid Australian workers.
• “These ads feature companies like Qantas, which has not paid a cent of corporate tax in almost a decade.
• “In the last year, CEO Alan Joyce’s pay has doubled.
• “In 2016 Joyce got a package worth $12.96M, and in 2017, he got $24.58M. Total executive remuneration almost doubled, in 2016, it was $29.2M and in 2017, it was $53M.
• “Between 2000 and 2013-14, the company was consistently profitable. After one bad year, the company sacked staff and cut pay, despite labour productivity increasing by 22 percent over the period.
• “They locked out their workers in 2011 over a pay dispute. They sacked 5000 people in 2014. Fifteen thousand employees have undergone pay freezes. The company has outsourced work to Aerocare, who mistreated workers, and Qantas has denied any responsibility.
• “The ads attempt to whitewash these facts. The message from the Australian people is pretty simple. Pay your tax. Pay workers properly. Stop pushing people into insecure work. Work with us to change the rules to bring back fairness.
• “The reason people are sick and tired of the behaviour of big business, is because right now, there’s one rule for them, and one rule for everyone else. No ad will change that.”