Employers Win Right to Undercut Minimum Wage: Regional Workers Most at Risk

The Federal Government has broken its promise to protect minimum wages with employers winning a new right to pay workers less than the federal minimum wage of $12.75 an hour during periods when business is slow says the ACTU.

Commenting on a new aspect of the industrial relations regulations discovered today, ACTU Secretary Greg Combet said:

"Employers will be able to pay workers less than the federal minimum wage of $12.75 an hour under John Howard's new industrial relations laws."

The problem is that there is no real way for workers to make sure that employers keep their promise other than to try and take their boss to court in an expensive legal action. The loss of the current 'no disadvantage test' and the changes to the Industrial Relations Commission under the new laws mean that workers will have no effective way of making sure their employers pay the right amount.

Workers in businesses that fluctuate from season to season such as the tourism, hospitality and seasonal agriculture sectors will be worst affected. This means that workers in rural and regional areas will be most at risk by the changes.

Your boss will be able to say "I'll pay you $8 an hour in the off season and double that when business is good" but if you get laid off in the meantime or business never really picks up then workers are going to be ripped off.

Under the new laws workers in most businesses will lose protection from being sacked unfairly and will have to go to court to make a case that they have been underpaid.

This just goes to show that the new IR laws are stacked against workers and deliver all the power to employers. The Prime Minister has broken his pledge to maintain the minimum wage. Even the head of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission Geoff Guidice recently said that the real intent of the Government's IR changes was to bring down the value of the minimum wage.

Workers and their families will only be worse off by these 'pay averaging' changes," said Mr Combet.