WAGE DECISION DISGRACE

5 July 2007

SA Unions Secretary, Janet Giles says today's Fair Pay Commission ruling on a maximum $10 a week rise for minimum wage earners is disgraceful.

"This is an outrageous decision by an organisation that doesn't deserve the word 'fair' in its title.  It has ignored the needs of workers and heeded only the views of the federal government and big business", Ms Giles says.

"The latest Census figures show South Australia has the lowest paid workers in the nation - more than a quarter of a million of them.  As a result, we'll be hardest hit by today's ruling", she says.

"In fact, some 300,000 South Australians in vital areas such as aged care, cleaning, hospitality and retail are condemned to struggle street by this ruling."

"Many of these are young people and women, who already suffer the brunt of WorkChoices through lower pay, cuts to penalty rates and overtime, and loss of job conditions and security through AWA's".

"South Australian families will face even bigger challenges trying to make ends meet with volatile interest rates, rising fuel prices, soaring food costs and increases in essentials such as power, water, education and health."

"And as a further kick in the guts, minimum wage earners are confronted with the glaring inequity that their 2% wage rise will barely keep pace with inflation, while federal politicians with fat pay packets are enjoying a 6.7% rise - and without having to jump through any hoops to prove they deserve it.  The hypocrisy is galling."

"A low paid worker will get just $10.36 a week, while a federal backbencher will get an extra $150 a week and the Prime Minister will get an extra $390 a week."

"Today's decision galvanises the determination of SA Unions to reveal the inequity of the WorkChoices system as part of the SA IRC Inquiry which began in Adelaide today.  We will be absolutely dogged in exposing this system's flaws and doing all we can to protect South Australians from the most unfair IR system in generations, which has today delivered the lowest wage rise for minimum workers in the past decade", Ms Giles says.