Australia needs pay rise: ACTU campaign kicks off   

ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the capacity of employers to use the Fair Work Act to terminate agreements was contributing to record low private sector wages growth.

    The Australian
    September 21, 2017


ACTU secretary Sally McManus will today launch a national “change the rules” campaign designed to win public support for pro-worker changes to the Fair Work Act.   

Ms McManus will kick off the campaign in Perth tonight, briefing union delegates ahead of workers across the country being surveyed over the next six weeks about what changes they want to the workplace laws.

“The pendulum had swung too far toward big business and Australia needs a pay rise,’’ she said. 

“We need to change the rules at work so working people can’t be held to ransom by bad employers who will use loopholes to cancel agreements, cut pay and slash conditions.”

Ms McManus said workers across Western Australia have had their pay and conditions stripped by laws that allow companies to terminate enterprise agreements, keep wages low, cut penalty rates, and support mass casualisation and wage theft.   

“Maintenance workers at Griffith Coal had their EBA axed in 2016 and had their pay slashed by more than 40%, while staff at Murdoch University will have their pay cut next week after the university spent almost $3 million on legal fees so it could reduce their wages,’’ she said.

She said the capacity of employers to use the Fair Work Act to terminate agreements was contributing to record low private sector wages growth.

“It’s a really serious way that wages are being depressed and it’s because even if you are not seeing agreements being cancelled, employers are threatening it at the bargaining table,’’ she told The Australian.   

“That’s immediately shifted power to them and putting workers under pressure to accept substandard wage rises.

“So we believe it’s in the national interest for this to be fixed as soon as possible. Secondly, we don’t believe anyone foresaw this with the Fair Work Act. It was never the intention of the Fair Work Act and it’s actually a problem that should be fixed and the Turnbull Government should be making it a priority.

She said the bargaining system need to have integrity and “at least, ensure employers are not given the button to the nuclear option of terminating agreements and cutting wages by 30 per cent”.

The ACTU will use the responses from the national survey of workers to identify the union movement’s priorities for change.

Ms McManus has previously said her chief priorities were to grow the union movement and strengthen the rights of workers. She has said she would lead a union campaign for major changes to the Fair Work Act and put “demands” on the political parties in the lead up to the next federal election.

As well as reduce the bargaining power of employers, unions want to ease legal restrictions on strikes and limit the use of casuals and labour hire. “

“Union members will be meeting across the country — in town hall meetings and workplaces — so they can change the rules and make their work fair and decent,’’ Ms McManus said.   

“We can only do this if working people get involved. We are inviting any worker who wants to be a part of this campaign to join us.

Did sally not say it was OK to break the law, if they were unjust,unfair laws?.      

juliar wrote on Sep 21^st, 2017 at 5:28pm:


A non-reply.  Because it is indefensible i suppose.

Just another reason why Australia needs a change of government at the next election. With conservatives in power for 14 out of the last 20 years, it's time for change.

salad in wrote on Sep 21^st, 2017 at 3:56pm:


Sally is a clueless gimp. Do you seriously expect anything else. Wages are down because total factor productivity is down and has been on the slip for nearly two decades.. All the jumping up and down and whinging will not see a reversal. Positive productivity growth and only positive productivity growth will see the downward spiral of wages diminution reverse. Sally needs a decent macro textbook.

crocodile wrote on Sep 21^st, 2017 at 11:28pm:


As usual your theory is good - but the long term realities speak differently.  Put simply - you can't have your cake and eat it, too.  You either provide an environment in which business and workers can prosper, and thus the nation as a whole, or you pay the piper forty years down the track.  What you can NOT do is complain when your policies have created the very situation you complain about.

Pay the piper.. and do so with a smile on your face.

Tomorrow will be worse....

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2017 at 1:04am:


Pay the piper for what exactly ? The realities have panned out precisely as expected. On this very board, I've been pointing out for years where national productivity is headed and what the consequences would be. Turns out that the 'Ol Croc was spot on.

You are correct in saying that you can't have your cake and eat it too. Militant demands for more wages while productivity goes backwards may work in an isolated case or two but only at the expense of others or to the employment rate. Forcing the owners of capital to lower margins will see either capital flight or exacerbation of the productivity decline with decreased investment.

It doesn't matter which way you look at it. First and foremost, this is solely a productivity problem.

Armchair_Politician wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2017 at 6:27am:

You sound like the kind of person who would have told Indians during British rule to shut up and pay the British tax on salt.