Penalty rates loss affect women most

Around 4.5 million Australian workers rely on penalty rates. Emergency service workers, hospital and health workers, doctors and nurses, the manufacturing sector, police and many other workers. 

It is no coincidence that the government, the business lobby and employer associations are creating a conversation about abolishing penalty rates paid to workers in particular industries, namely hospitality and retail. 

I argue it’s for two reasons; first, there is still a gender divide across the Australian labour market and a gender pay gap of 26.1% in Western Australia against the national average of 17.1%. Women in Western Australia and across the country are going backwards in terms of pay and women are clustered in the sectors where the government wants to slash penalty rates. 

Second, many believe hospitality and retail jobs are the jobs you do on your way to securing a better job. Yet many employers want mature workers over a weekend because they value customer service and/or product knowledge. There are many workers across hospitality and retail who have made these jobs their careers and many are women.

The government appears to think these female workers are an easy target. And since they have little bargaining power and low rates of unionisation across many of these small workplaces, maybe they are. 

Make no mistake: if the government is successful in lowering penalty rates in hospitality and retail, it will flow onto all sectors of the labour market and penalty rates will be lost or lowered forever.

These same sectors were the areas where individual agreements in Western Australia flourished: low paid, insecure work with employees who have little or no bargaining power. These workers were targeted and were more vulnerable to the new agreements which cut their wages and conditions, including penalty rates.

A paper by Janis Bailey and Bob Horstmann examined industrial reforms in Western Australia from 1993 onwards. The paper, titled Life is Full of Choices, reported that more than 50% of agreements in these sectors reduced or eliminated significant conditions such as penalty rates, overtime and leave loading. And as second generation agreements came in, there was a fivefold increase in agreements which offered below award rates of pay.

ACOSS and ACFID call for immediate release of children from detention and Nauru

Thursday 15 October 2015

The peak bodies for Australia’s social welfare and overseas aid organisations are joining together today to call on the Australian Government to urgently release all asylum seeker children from Nauru and Australian detention centres. Children located offshore must be immediately brought to Australia.
 
“We are joining together to deliver a very simple and direct message to the politicians of this country and on behalf of our combined membership: the ends do not justify the means,” said the Executive Director of the Australian Council of International Development, Mr Marc Purcell.
 
“Stopping asylum seekers coming by boat cannot justify locking children up indefinitely in detention centres and on Nauru and putting at risk their mental, physical and sexual wellbeing,” Mr Purcell said.
 
“Let us be absolutely clear: nothing can ever justify putting children at risk of harm - nothing.
 
“We are deeply concerned that the Australian Government has kept children in institutions where they are being subject to psychological and sexual abuse for over a year,” he said.
 
At the present time, 96 children are in Nauru and a further 104 children are in Australian detention facilities.
 
Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Council of Social Services, Dr Cassandra Goldie said releasing the children from detention and removing them from Nauru is the most urgent and important task for this Government. Community organisations in Australia stand ready to work with the Government to ensure that the children and their families are cared for upon release.
 
“Once the children have been removed, all allegations of child abuse raised by staff, parents and children in detention centres and on Nauru need to be referred to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse,” Dr Goldie said.

“The Government needs to realise that the Australian and International community does not condone what is happening to the children of asylum seekers. It does not believe the Government has done enough to keep them safe.
 
“Indeed, by not removing all children from detention and Nauru, many Australians believe the Government is actively putting children in harm’s way.
 
“ACFID and ACOSS also call on the Government to establish an independent Children’s Guardian to represent the best interests of children seeking asylum in Australia.
 
“The Children’s Guardian would be charged with ensuring that children upon arrival to Australia are held by authorities for the absolute minimum period necessary for appropriate checks to be conducted, and to oversee their release to appropriate carers in the community without delay.
 
“The Children’s Guardian would also ensure that unaccompanied children in the community have a permanent Guardian to ensure that their best interests are protected at all times,” Dr Goldie said.

ACTU: China free trade agreement: Unions vow to keep up fight

China free trade agreement: Unions vow to keep up fight against deal despite Labor's proposed amendments

ACTU president Ged Kearney says there are still "major gaps" in the ChAFTA.

Australia's peak union body says federal Labor's demands over the China free trade deal do not go far enough and it will continue to campaign against the agreement.

"There are still major gaps for us with the China free trade agreement (FTA) and we don't think these amendments to the migration bill will fix all of the problems," ACTU president Ged Kearney said.

"So the changes to the Migration Act do not cover all our concerns."

Unions have run television advertisements against the deal.

The ACTU is also holding more than 20 local forums across Australia and is challenging Coalition MPs to debate the agreement.

"I think until we're absolutely sure that our concerns are covered off we'll continue to campaign around this," Ms Kearney said after Labor's announcement on Tuesday.

"Given that there are still concerns, we will continue to have a conversation with our members and the Australian people about our concerns that remain."

MP argues Labor should be prepared to block China FTA

Victorian Labor MP Kelvin Thomson — who has questioned the benefit of many Australian FTAs — said Labor should not vote to ratify the China agreement if the Government does not agree to the party's demands.

"If the Government is not prepared to entertain these proposals, then I don't think the treaty should be ratified because I think the dangers for Australian workers are too great," Mr Thomson said.

"It's essential we have safeguards in place to make sure that there are provisions in this agreement that don't get abused."

ACTU: Blueprint for reform

The ACTU is ready to roll up its sleeves and get to work to help bring about urgently needed government reforms on critical areas including changes to the tax system to make it fairer for all Australians.

We will work with the government, business and community groups to kick start urgent action to grow the economy, create jobs and lift living standards.

We need reforms that will address the challenges our economy faces: an aging population, technological change, global competition and changes to our labour market including new types of unregulated employment such as the ‘sharing economy’” and rising inequality.

In August the ACTU was part of the initial National Reform Summit. Out of that we released the “Building A Better Future” document to our affiliates. This document builds on the joint recommendations that arose out of that first summit.

These include:

• Recognising the role governments must play across all sectors of our economy to ensure we generate the jobs, skills and innovation we need to build a better and fairer Australia
• Address productivity growth in Australia by having a comprehensive industry policy
• Review the tax system to ensure adequate revenue, including closing tax minimization loop holes for individuals and companies and superannuation tax concessions for the wealthy.
• Support and fund research and development in innovation (including renewable energy) that drives Australia’s competitiveness.
• Urgent action to close our current national infrastructure deficit
• Government investment in public services to support a productive community and public assets to build economic growth
• Increase government investment and support for schools, higher education, TAFE and VET including fully funding Gonski recommendations.
• Address climate change including increasing Australia’s current emission reduction target

Attribute Quotes to ACTU Secretary, Dave Oliver:

“We want to engage on the high road of reform- not the low road of reducing wages, stripping conditions or cost shifting on to working families.”

“Cutting your way to growth doesn’t work- the European experience of austerity measures has shown that this is a lazy and destructive answer which is not a path to long term, sustainable economic growth.

“Decent, secure jobs and high living standards generate local consumer demand and productivity and are critical to boosting our economic prosperity. We must recognise the economic importance of ordinary working Australian families in any reform package.

Authors – Ragged Philanthropy

Australian authors earn $12,900

Jason Steger in The Age writes: "It's very different if you win the Miles Franklin Literary award or the Man Booker, but most Australian authors earn only $12,900 from their writing, according to a new study from Macquarie University that surveyed more than 1000 book authors. Cultural economist Professor David Throsby, who also undertakes regular research on artists' incomes for the Australia Council, said writers averaged $12,900 from creative work, $14,000 from associated work such as editorial or teaching creative writing and about