Martin Ferguson slams ‘offensive’ wages panel dumping

Former Labor Minister Martin Ferguson has slammed the Fair Work Commission’s handling of his removal from wage review panel.

Martin Ferguson regularly clashed with left-wing unions and has been critical of the CFMEU’s construction division. Picture: AAP

Former Labor Minister Martin Ferguson has criticised the Fair Work Commission’s handling of his removal from the annual wage review panel as “offensive” and “the height of bad manners”.

Mr Ferguson, a former ACTU president, was dropped as an expert panel member for this year’s annual wage review, joining labour economist Mark Wooden on the outer.

The commission confirmed on Friday that the duo – appointed for five years by the Coalition in 2020 – had been replaced on the minimum wage review by new expert panel members.

Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke announced this week the appointment of three new expert panel members – senior Treasury economist Mark Cully, University of Sydney Business School professor of gender and employment relations Marion Baird, and RMIT University senior lecturer in economics Leonora Risse.

Fair Work president Adam Hatcher.

A commission spokeswoman said new Fair Work president Adam Hatcher formally made the decision to appoint Professor Baird and Mr Cully to this year’s annual wage review on Thursday morning.

A fourth expert panel member, Adele Labine-Romain, who was appointed in 2020, will also sit on the wage review.

“Professor Wooden and Mr Ferguson were informed by email very shortly after this decision was made that they would not be asked to serve on this year’s annual wage review,” the spokeswoman said.

Mr Ferguson said he found “the handling of the appointments to this year’s minimum wage bench rather offensive”.

“As a matter of courtesy, I rang the president’s office three or four weeks ago, inquiring about the timetable for the minimum wage bench as there were only three members of the expert panel in existence at the time and we all assumed that we’d continue to serve,” he said.

“At that time, no timetable had been established for the receipt of submissions and I was getting worried. The fact that I didn’t receive a response from the president or his staff and then received a mere email yesterday advising I was no longer required, to me is the height of bad manners.”

Mr Ferguson referred to Mr Hatcher’s past position as chief legal adviser with the NSW Branch of the Transport Workers Union.

“I only hope that the president learns, as a former Transport Workers Union heavy, that with his new-found responsibilities he must treat members of the commission, and parties appearing, with respect rather than disdain,” he said.

Mr Ferguson, a minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments, regularly clashed with left-wing unions over the years and has been critical of the conduct of the CFMEU’s construction division, calling for Victorian secretary John Setka to be kicked out of the ALP

In 2015, the maritime union pushed, unsuccessfully, to have Mr Ferguson, who continues to work part-time in the mining, petroleum and tourism sectors, expelled as an ALP member after he supported the NSW Coalition’s plans for privatisation.

Mr Ferguson said he did not accept remuneration for his work as an expert panel member. “To me, the work of the minimum wage bench is exceptionally important because it’s always about the lowest-paid in the community, the people I traditionally represented,” he said.

“For that reason, I treated my participation as being exceptionally important. It involved a huge amount of preparation and reading but for obvious reasons I never accepted any form of remuneration because I didn’t think it was appropriate I was paid to be involved in setting the minimum wage of workers.”

Mr Wooden said his treatment by the commission was “totally disrespectful”.

He said he only found out he had been dumped after he emailed the chambers of Mr Hatcher, asking about this year’s annual wage review.

He said the president’s associate told him that Mr Cully and Ms Baird had been appointed to the panel and “as a result, your services are no longer required”.

“It’s very disrespectful at a minimum,” he said. ”But the bigger issue is, what are the politics going on behind this?”