Call to freeze wages for low-paid as Labor pushes controversial agenda

Restaurant and cafe owners want a minimum wage freeze, saying that the Fair Work Commission should ­impose a real wage cut.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus. Picture: AAP

Restaurant and cafe owners have called for a minimum wage freeze, declaring that the Fair Work Commission should ­impose a real wage cut on low-paid workers by not granting any increase this year.

Restaurant and Catering Australia, which represents 45,000 businesses nationally, said a freeze was justified given the financial pressures on ­employers resulting from ­increased competition and the impact of above-inflation minimum wage increases granted by the commission in recent years.

The controversial call — ­criticised last night by ACTU secretary Sally McManus as being ­driven by “appalling self-interest” — came as the Australian Retailers ­Association said a survey showed half of its ­membership also supported the minimum wage being frozen this year.

Association executive director Russell Zimmerman said that, despite the survey findings, the ARA would support a 1.8 per cent rise, equal to $12.95 a week, in line with the position put by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Scott Morrison yesterday ­attacked Bill Shorten’s support for a living wage as a job-­wrecking plan driven by the politics of envy, while employers criticised the ACTU claim for a $43-a-week rise this year in the minimum wage.

The Prime Minister said the Opposition Leader was “going to force small and family ­businesses all around the ­country to sack people in order to give some others a few more ­dollars”.

Labor has said it will consider changing the factors the Fair Work Commission must consider when determining the minimum wage.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott lent support for reviewing the ­criteria, provided the circumstances of low-paid workers were balanced against the economy’s capacity to pay.

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive Juliana Payne said employers in the sector were subject to a huge amount of competition but could not pass on any price increases as other sectors did. She said workers had ­received above-inflation minimum wage increases in recent years and the impact had been compounded by casual loadings and penalty rates.

Ms Payne said the sector would only be prepared to support an ­increase in the minimum wage in the future if there were significant changes to the “complex” award structure and an improvement in the profitability of employers.

She said granting the ACTU’s claim to lift the minimum wage to 60 per cent of median earnings by next year would cause job losses.

This is the second consecutive year that Restaurant and Catering Australia has supported a minimum wage freeze.

Ms McManus said the call for an effective pay cut showed “how out of touch big business lobby groups are with the Australian community’s demand for a fair go”. “With workers already struggling to make ends meet, this proposal for a wage cut for our lowest paid workers shows the ­appalling self-interest of sections of the business lobby,’’ the ACTU secretary said.

“If this business lobby had their way, Australian hospitality ­workers would be paid in tips like Americans.”

Mr Zimmerman said a survey of the ARA’s membership found 28 per cent supported a zero minimum wage increase and 21 per cent backed deferring any increase until retail trade stabilised. Forty-six per cent backed a rise in line with inflation, while 5.6 per cent supported an increase above inflation, and just 2 per cent backed a significant above-inflation rise.

Mr Morrison said Australians did not want to “see their co-­workers sacked for them to do ­better, but that is Bill Shorten’s plan for Australia”.

“He is engaged in this war of envy on Australians,’’ the Prime Minister said.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen said Labor stood by its commitment to deliver a living wage. “Do you want people going to work being in poverty or do you not? Well we don’t,“ Mr Bowen said. “So we’ve identified that issue. Now we’ve been going through the process of consulting. We’ll continue to do so about exactly the right mechanism to ensure that the minimum wage is fit for purpose.”

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said granting the ACTU claim for a 6 per cent increase in the ­minimum wage “would be a sure-fire way of destroying jobs, harming businesses, and threatening Australia’s long period of economic growth”.

Ms McManus said no ­employee should be forced to work below the poverty line “but that is exactly what the current minimum wage guarantees”.