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PM ATTACKS UNIONS AND IGNORES FACTS ABOUT IMPACT OF NEW IR LAWS ON WORKING FAMILIES
Instead of attacking unions the Federal Government should admit that its IR laws are hurting working families the ACTU said today.
Prime Minister John Howard today claimed on Brisbane radio that many workers on AWA individual contracts were being paid the same or higher wages despite losing penalty rates, when in fact the evidence shows otherwise.
Contrary to the PM's claim, official Government data shows that one in five (22%) AWA individual contracts registered under the new laws provide no pay rise for the life of the contract which could be up to five years.
Other award conditions such as penalty rates, overtime pay, public holiday payments, annual leave loadings and shift work payments are also being abolished at an alarming rate by AWAs under the new IR laws.
New data from the Office of the Employment Advocate confirms that every day 1,000 workers are being put onto an AWA individual contract under the new laws.
Every one of these AWAs removes at least one formerly protected award condition.
The impact of the loss of penalty rates, overtime pay and pay rises under the new IR laws is also showing up in national ABS wages data with average earnings for full time workers falling behind the cost of living:
* Compared to the rate of inflation total average earnings for full time adult workers have dropped by -0.6% over the past 12 months since the new IR laws came into effect
* For full time workers in the private sector average total earnings have dropped by -1.1%.
* The drop in average earnings for women workers in the private sector is -1.8%.
* For around 1.2 million workers on minimum wages, the increase granted to them by the Government's new Pay Commission saw the real value of their weekly wages fall -0.9% behind the inflation rate.
The Federal Government misleadingly refers to ABS wages data that includes the earnings of part time workers. This artificially inflates the wages data because it includes as 'pay rises' extra hours of work for part time workers.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said:
"Slowly but surely the new IR laws are eroding the take home pay of Australian workers.
No amount of spin and misleading information by the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and Minister Joe Hockey will be enough to convince working families that they are better off under the new IR laws."
ACTU Media release 16 April 2007
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