According to the Australian Treasury in November 2017;
On a variety of measures, wage growth is low....
However, weaker labour productivity growth seems unlikely to be a cause of the current period of slow wage growth in Australia. Over the past five years, labour productivity in Australia has grown at around its 30-year average annual growth rate....
An examination of wage growth by employee characteristics using the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey and administrative taxation data suggests that recent subdued wage growth has been experienced by the majority of employees, regardless of income or occupation.....
This is true across the
States and Territories, across industries, and across both the public and
private sectors. Real wage growth – wage growth relative to the increase in
prices in the economy – has also been low.
The Reserve Bank of Australia suggests in
its March
Quarter 2017 Bulletin that there is"
...some tentative evidence that the
relationship between wage growth and labour market conditions may have changed,
and that this may help to explain recent low wage growth. Using job-level micro
wage data, we also find that, since 2012, wage increases have been less
frequent and wage growth outcomes have become much more similar across jobs.
Being paid at the minimum wage rate means that a worker is paid the lowest hourly income for his/her labour that is legally allowable.
At the beginning of the 21st Century (January 2001) the national minimum wage was $10.53 per hour or $400.40 per 38 hour week (before tax).
The current national minimum wage is $18.29 per hour or $694.90 per
38 hour week (before tax) according to the Fair Work Commission.
That represents a rise of $7.76 an hour over the course of 17 years - the equivalent of 45 cents a year.
Not a spectacular hourly base wage growth by any measure.
In March 2018
the Australian Federation of Employers
and Industries (AFEI), Australian
Retailers Association, Restaurant
& Catering Industrial (RCI), Australian
Business Industrial and the NSW Business Chamber Ltd (along with eight other industry representatives) made
initial submissions to the Fair Work
Commission Annual Wage Review 2017-18.
It will come
as no surprise that any decent rise in the minimum wage is being resisted in
these submissions.
A number of business and industry representatives appear to believe that even raising the minimum wage hourly rate by as little as 34-35 cents is an onerous burden.
Frequent
mention is made of the supposed part the businesses they represent play in
national ‘jobs and growth’ and the risk wage increases allegedly pose.
A notion
supported by the Turnbull Government’s
own submission.
Couched in polite terms within their submissions is the last resort position of both the federal government and big business.
It seems they are reluctantly willing to accept a minimum wage increase that doesn't rise by more than 1.9% (rate of inflation in December 2017) and definitely resist the idea of a rise that actually results in real wages growth.
However, there
is another less polite aspect of the part businesses play in the lives of workers and it should be remembered when
listening to business and industry representatives make their wage case during media
appearances.
The Australian Government Fair Work Ombudsman’s 2018 media releases offer a window on that other aspect which includes a widespread contempt for both workers and the law.
Western Sydney campaign
reveals high rates of unlawful workplaces
High
rates of non-compliance uncovered by the Fair Work Ombudsman in Western
Sydney have reinforced the importance of ensuring that Australia’s
culturally and linguistically diverse communities have ready access to
workplace information and advice.
The Fair Work Ombudsman
today released the results of its proactive education and compliance campaign
in the region, covering suburbs including Cabramatta, Guildford, Mt Druitt, Fairfield and Merrylands.
Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of the 197 businesses
audited by the Fair Work Ombudsman during the campaign were found to be
non-compliant with workplace laws.
The campaign led to a
total of $369,324 in unpaid wages and entitlements being recovered for 199
workers.
Sixty-four per cent of
businesses were compliant with record-keeping and payslip requirements, while
just 58 per cent were paying their employees correctly.
The campaign was
initiated following an increase in the number of requests for assistance
received from some parts of the region in previous years, despite an overall
decrease across New South Wales in the same period.
As part of the campaign,
Fair Work inspectors conducted site visits with a particular focus on Harris
Park and Parramatta in response to intelligence received by the
agency indicating potential non-compliance amongst restaurants in the area.
The suburbs are also
home to a higher than average proportion of migrants, with both Harris Park (85
per cent) and Parramatta (74 per cent) at more than twice the national average
of 30.2 per cent.
Acknowledging that new
arrivals to Australia may have a limited awareness of Australian workplace
laws, it was considered that businesses in the region would benefit from
tailored support and education from the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Only two of the 23
businesses visited in these suburbs were found to be fully compliant – a
non-compliance rate of 91 per cent.
Fair Work Ombudsman
Natalie James says the non-compliance rates uncovered by the campaign are
highly concerning and cannot be tolerated.
“Where possible, we seek
to educate employers and employees about their workplace rights and obligations
and equip them with the tools and information they need to ensure they are
complying with the law,” Ms James said.
“This area has a large
proportion of people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds,
who can find it more challenging to navigate that information or even know
where to find it in the first place.
“When combined with a
lack of familiarity with workplace laws, language barriers can present
significant difficulties to employers seeking to understand and comply with
their obligations.
“The results of this
campaign reaffirm the importance of my agency’s work in reaching out to
culturally and linguistically diverse communities to raise awareness of the
help we can provide.
“We are also making more
and more of our tools and resources available in multiple languages, including
our Anonymous
Report function and the Record
My Hours app,” Ms James said.
“Our website can also be
viewed in 40 languages other than English with a simple click of the mouse with
our new
website translator.
“With the wealth of free
information and resources available to help businesses understand their
obligations, there are no excuses for breaching workplace laws.”
Overall, Fair Work
inspectors issued 26 formal cautions, 20 infringement notices (on-the-spot
fines) and 11 compliance notices to non-compliant businesses during the course
of the campaign.
In one matter, a restaurant business was found to be
paying its casual employees under an old award, resulting in a total
underpayment of $10,444 to three employees. Fair Work inspectors issued the
employer with a compliance notice, and the employees were fully back-paid in
accordance with the notice.
Ms James said that
non-compliant businesses were now on notice that future breaches could result
in serious enforcement action.
“We are happy to work
with businesses who require advice and support to meet their workplace
obligations, and we will continue our work to ensure our materials are easily
accessible to those that need them,” Ms James said.
“Indeed, we were pleased
that the employers that we dealt with over the course of this campaign were
cooperative and willing to engage with our inspectors, and that all
contraventions were willingly rectified.
“We will continue to
pursue new initiatives aimed at engaging with businesses in the region to
ensure they have access to the help and information they need.”
Ms James reaffirmed
however that her agency will not hesitate to take action where deliberate or
repeated breaches of the law were identified.
“Employers who fail to
put in place processes to ensure compliance expose themselves to enforcement
action, including litigation in the most serious cases,” Ms James said.
Employers and employees
seeking assistance can visit www.fairwork.gov.au or call the Fair Work Infoline
on 13 13 94. An interpreter service is available on 13 14 50.
The Fair Work Ombudsman
recently developed six videos in 16 languages other than English to help visa
holders to understand their workplace rights. These and other in-language
resources are available at www.fairwork.gov.au/languages.
The Fair Work
Ombudsman’s Record
My Hours app is aimed at tackling the persistent problem of
underpayment of vulnerable workers by using geo-fencing technology to provide
workers with a record of the time they spend at their workplace. The app is
available in a number of different languages and can be downloaded from the App
Store and Google Play.
The Fair Work
Ombudsman’s latest Compliance Activity Report shows a workplace non-compliance
rate of 76 per cent in the Caltex service network…..
The Fair Work Ombudsman
commenced proceedings against the former operator of the Caltex Five Dock
service station in Sydney, Aulion
Pty Ltd, and has also initiated proceedings against Abdul
Wahid and Sons Pty Ltd, the former franchisee of a number of Caltex outlets
in Sydney.
In both cases, the Fair
Work Ombudsman alleges that the absence of accurate time and wage records
prevented inspectors from completing audits and determining whether employees
had received their lawful entitlements.
During the activity, the
regulator issued nine infringement notices, 11 compliance notices and 16 formal
cautions to non-compliant franchisees.
Inspectors also
recovered a total of $9,329.85 in back-pay for 26 workers who were underpaid
during a one-month assessment period.
Ms James said the agency
believes the figure would be higher if underpayments could have been accurately
calculated, but with so many deficiencies in the outlets’ records it is
impossible to be sure of the true extent of the wage rip-offs.
“There’s no question
that if these findings indicate the norm in this network, and if these
underpayments are replicated throughout the business month after month, we are
quickly looking at millions of dollars of underpayments over the course of a
few years,” Ms James said…..
The Fair Work Ombudsman
has commenced legal action against the former franchisee of a 7-Eleven retail
outlet in the Melbourne CBD for allegedly exploiting three international
students through a cash-back scheme.
Facing Court are Xia
Jing Qi Pty Ltd, which operated a 7-Eleven retail store on William Street until
March 2017, and the store’s former manager, Ai Ling “Irene” Lin.
It is alleged that after
7-Eleven head office set up a high-tech payroll system in 2016 aimed at
ensuring employees were paid lawful minimum rates, the company and Ms Lin tried
to disguise underpayments of three employees by requiring them to pay back
thousands of dollars in wages.
The three employees were
Chinese students, aged between 21 and 24, who were in Australia on student
visas. Ms Lin, from Taiwan, was also in Australia on a student visa…..
The Fair Work Ombudsman
has brought proceedings relating to redundancy entitlements, in a new legal
action against services company Spotless Services Australia Limited for
allegedly contravening workplace laws when it terminated the employment of
three workers at Perth International Airport.
The operator of a Degani
café in Melbourne’s north-east is facing Court after he allegedly used false
records to conceal more than $12,000 in underpayments of staff, including
teenagers and overseas workers.
The operators of a
Melbourne restaurant have been hit with nearly $200,000 in penalties, after a
Judge ruled they deliberately underpaid workers.
A Perth security company
has been penalised in Court for underpaying its guards more than $200,000, with
a Judge saying the company’s claim that it thought overpaying in relation to
minimum rates would “counteract” other rates of pay was a “lame excuse”.
The operator of a number
of massage parlours in Adelaide who said he was “too busy and lazy” to keep
proper records has been penalised for contraventions of record-keeping and pay
slip laws, following legal action by the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The Fair Work Ombudsman
has commenced legal action against a Bundaberg-based transport company for
allegedly underpaying an employee more than $11,000 over a period of just nine
months.
Cleaning contractors at
90 per cent of Woolworths’ Tasmanian supermarket sites were not complying with
workplace laws, a Fair Work Ombudsman Inquiry has found.
Michael Patrick Pulis, a
business operator who told his employee to “seriously, f**k off…” when the
worker asked when he would receive money owed to him, has been penalised
$21,500.
Judge Grant Riethmuller
also penalised Mr Pulis’ company, Pulis Plumbing Pty Ltd, a further $100,000
after a plumber’s labourer, who was 20 years old at the time, was underpaid by
$26,882 over just three months.
Judge Riethmuller
described the conduct as “outrageous exploitation of a young person”, adding
that the behaviour was “such to arouse much emotion” and “nothing short of
avarice”.
The worker was underpaid
when he was employed by Pulis Plumbing to perform work in the Melbourne, Geelong and Bendigoareas
between September and December, 2014.
A Northern Territory
refuge for women and children victims of domestic violence has back-paid 11
employees a total of more than $50,000, after intervention by the Fair Work
Ombudsman.
The operator of a remote
Northern Territory homestead is facing major penalties after underpaying 17
employees more than $23,000.
A sushi outlet operator
and an accountant have been penalised almost $200,000 for their involvement in
an unlawful internship program that exploited young overseas workers.
A Brisbane labour hire
business will face court for allegedly underpaying 10 employees more than
$14,000 through an unlawful unpaid work experience program.
Ten truck drivers who
worked for an Adelaide transport company have been back-paid a total of
$374,000 following successful legal action by the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The former manager of an
Oliver Brown chocolate café outlet on the Gold Coast who was ‘seeing what he
could get away with’ when he exploited overseas workers has been penalised
$27,200.
The Fair Work Ombudsman
recently assisted workers at four businesses in suburbs south east of Melbourne
to recover almost $50,000 in unpaid wages and entitlements.
A Judge has penalised a
repeat-offender Melbourne childcare operator $85,000 for her latest staff
underpayments, saying she required a “sharp lesson” to make her appreciate her
legal obligations.
A substantial proportion
of international students, backpackers and other temporary migrants were paid
around half the legal minimum wage in Australia…..
Underpayment was
widespread across numerous industries but was especially prevalent in food
services, and especially severe in fruit and vegetable picking.
Two in five participants
(38%) had their lowest paid job in cafes, restaurants and takeaway shops. This
was a far greater proportion than for any other type of job….
Large-scale wage theft
was prevalent across a range of industries, but the worst paid jobs were in
fruit- and vegetable-picking and farm work….
The study confirms that
wage theft is endemic among international students, backpackers and other
temporary migrants in Australia. For a substantial number of temporary
migrants, it is also severe.
Besides wages theft, employers have also developed a penchant for pocketing workers superannuation.
…it
turns out that Australia’s compulsorary superannuation system has a great big
hole in it — one worth $17 billion.
That’s how much super
employers have dodged paying in the past eight years, according to new figures
released by the ATO this week.
The ATO analysis found
that employees had likely missed out on $2.85 billion of their super guarantee
payments during the 2014/15 financial year, because employers dodged their
obligations, with small business owners among the worst offenders.
