Oppose Downward Push on Workers’ Incomes in All Its Forms

Ned K.

During the election campaign union members across the country have been running a good grass roots campaign, Save Our Weekends, No Cuts to Penalty Rates. 

The purpose of the campaign goes further than the ALP election campaign in that it is designed to create enough awareness and support in the community to make it risky for either Labor or Liberal in a post-election government to wash their hands of any decision by Fair Work Commission to reduce weekend penalty rates in any sector of the economy.

The Save Our Weekends campaign is part of a broader strategy of progressive people within the working class movement to build an independent working class agenda and movement.

The idea of progressive workers initiating a movement with an agenda independent of the Labor Party in particular is being well received in the community and in workplaces. The evidence supporting such an idea is plain for all to see in deals between Coles and the 'yellow' union leadership of the right wing ALP-affiliated SDA to reduce penalty rates in an Enterprise Agreement and the infamous Bill Shorten involvement in a shonky deal for Clean Event/Spotless workers. 

More Sinister Attacks On Living Standards Underway - Migrant Workers Affected Most

However there are more sinister attacks on weekend penalty rates and shift rates that have the potential, if not opposed, to have an even greater impact on living standards than the current attempts by big business to reduce penalty rates on weekends, initially in the hospitality and restaurants sector.

One of these attacks on living standards takes the form of employers requiring workers to register their own Australian Business Number (ABN) as a condition of employment. This has been going on in industries like cleaning, security, road transport and construction for a while. It became more prevalent when workers defeated the Howard Government's individual contracts (AWAs). 

Attempts to introduce individual contracts in a new form have not been successful due to workers' experience of AWAs. So employers in the sectors mentioned above are targeting migrant workers for cheap labor and 'sell' ABNs as a way for a new migrant to 'be their own boss' which they are told will help them progress their Visa status towards permanent residency. 

The result is that these workers end up being paid as low as $15 per hour on an ABN with no annual leave, no sick pay and no worker's compensation protection unless they self-insure. As for superannuation payments, most of these workers have no knowledge of this entitlement. The super exploitation of these workers, especially if they work on weekends and evening or night work results in them being underpaid by up to $15 per hour on average. Throw in any overtime worked as well and the underpayment or super exploitation is even higher.

These workers are difficult to organize because of their precarious situation, but it appears that this form of employment is spreading beyond the new migrant worker population and occurring in areas such as aged car and private sector disabilities where government policies of both major parties move to "consumer directed care". 

"Consumer directed care" is a euphemism for deregulation of these industries, making it difficult to trace who is the actual employer of the person performing the care work, and putting the onus on the consumer of care to police how the provider of their care is paid. So even the minimum safety net pay and conditions of employment are not applied as workers thrown out of other industries become more desperate for any work that keeps them out of the eye of the Centre Link "police".

Challenge For Unions

The challenge for unions is to allocate organizing resources to these sectors and to include these workers in the fight to build an independent working class agenda. A difficult challenge but history of workers struggles in the early days of capitalism when unions first formed shows that where there is a will there is a way!

Proposed Cuts To Penalty Rates Demonstrate The Inherent Contradictions Within Capitalism

Ned K.

So far in the federal election campaign for the spoils of office, the issue of employer attempts to cut weekend penalty rates have not featured prominently in the mainstream media. However, at the grass roots level, the unions campaign Save Our Weekends No Cuts To Penalty Rates continues to have widespread community support.

Hundreds of thousands of workers have signed petitions in support of no cuts to weekend pay rates. The Turnbull government says it is a matter for the Fair Work Commission to determine. Bill Shorten stated that if he was Prime Minister, Labor would respect the Fair Work Commission's decision.

So fundamentally both major parliamentary parties have the same position on the issue of cutting workers' weekend pay rates. There are differences between them on how to implement the cuts.

The employers in hospitality and retail industry, where any reduction in weekend rates will have a big impact on working people's family income, are pretty confident the 'independent umpire' will order a cut to Sunday penalty rates. The Australian Financial Review on Thursday 12 May reported that employers are now arguing among themselves on how to implement the reduced rates of pay. The large supermarket chains have said that their existing permanent workers should have the right to refuse to work Sundays when reduced penalty rates are implemented (not if implemented!). This sounds very noble of the large retailers and appears that they care about their permanent workers. However what they do not say is that the rate of pay for most of their permanent workers on a Saturday in their Enterprise Agreements has no penalty rate at all! Secondly the big retailers want the right of refusal by permanent workers to work on Sundays to only last for 2 years. With turnover of labor, how many existing permanents will still be working with the same employer?

The Pharmacy Guild, effectively representing the big drug distribution employers and the Australian Industry Group submitted to Fair Work Commission that Sunday was no different from a Saturday and therefore no worker should have any right of refusal to work a rostered shift on a Sunday.

It is possible that the big retailers are confident in filling Sunday shifts with "flexible" casual labour and juniors while the Pharmacy Guild are concerned they may have a shortage of skilled labour on Sundays if workers have the right to refuse Sunday shifts when (not if) the cuts to Sunday rates become operational.

At a more general level, some sections of big business are complaining that the economy is "sluggish" (sales and profits down) and that part of the reason for this is "low wages growth"! They fail to see that this argument is contrary to a 25% drop in pay that a Sunday worker will receive if/when Sunday penalty rates are reduced as a direct result of employer submissions to the Fair Work Commission.

What it boils down to is that each capitalist or industry group of capitalists wants to keep wages to a minimum for the workers they employ but wants "wages growth" generally speaking to realise profits by people buying their products or services.

This is also the message coming through in enterprise bargaining negotiations around the country in most sectors. One employer after the other argues that the inflation rate is low and that their competitors are paying lower wage increases in enterprise agreements so to remain "competitive" they must do the same.

However in the same breath they argue that sales of their products or services are down. When their workers' bargaining representatives reply that a decent wage increase is need to enable workers to pay for the things they and their families need, there is silence form the other side of the table.

A comrade summed up this situation which will remain as long as capitalism exists in the following words:  "Oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight".

Whoever wins the spoils of parliamentary office in the coming federal election, the fight between oppressor and oppressed will continue until the oppressor is vanished from society completely by the collective organised power of the people led by the workers whichever days of the week they work on.