Shorten backs urgent wage rise for low-paid

Labor on its ‘first day of government’ would urge the FWC to support a ‘’real ­increase to award rates’’, Bill Shorten says.

Bill Shorten meets students at St Joseph's Catholic College in Gosford yesterday. Picture: Getty Images

Bill Shorten will immediately urge the Fair Work Commission to suppor­t an above-inflation pay rise for minimum wage and award-reliant low-paid workers if Labor wins Saturday’s election.

The Opposition Leader wrote to commission president Iain Ross yesterday, telling him that on its ‘‘first day of government’’ Labor would urge the tribunal to support a ‘‘real ­increase to award rates’’.

He said a Labor government would seek to replace the ­Coalition’s submission to the minimum wage review, saying the Morrison government had failed to argue for workers.

‘‘We have made this unpreced­ented decision on behalf of Aust­ralia’s workers who rely on the award minimum rates and do it ­because this government has complete­ly failed to advocate for workers in this country,’’ Mr Shorten­’s letter, co-written by Labor’s employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor, said.

‘‘At no point in the last six years has this government supported real increases in submissions to the annual wage review. Instead, they have provided a slew of argumen­ts which could only be understood to be advocating against real increases.

‘‘Since the last election, company profits have gone up 39 per cent but wages have only gone up 5 per cent. A record number of Australians are working a second job to make ends meet.

“The Liberals want workers’ wages to be low and they want them to stay low.’’

In its submission, the Coalition did not explicitly support an above-inflation increase. It said it had ‘‘provided the latest evidence on the economy, labour market, low-paid workers and inequality for the panel to consider in determin­ing a fair increase to minimum wages’’.

The commission’s expert panel is scheduled to hold final hearings today and tomorrow before determin­ing a pay rise to take effec­t from July 1.

‘‘If Australians decide against six more years of cuts and chaos from a Morrison government and vote for change, a Labor ­government will not delay the pay rise Australian workers deserve,’’ Mr Shorten and Mr O’Connor said.

‘‘We want to emphasise that in providing a new submission on behalf­ of the Australian government, it is not our intention to hold up any increase the expert panel may consider making for Aust­ralia’s workers on 1 July, 2019.

‘‘The Morrison government failed to argue for Australia’s workers, and their submission must be replaced.’’

A spokesman for Jobs and Industria­l Relations Minister Kelly O’Dwyer said: “Has Bill Shorten forgotten that he already made a submission, just like he forget­s about the billions of dollars in taxes he would levy on the Aust­ralian people? He already made a submission eight weeks ago.”

The day one commitment builds on Labor’s plan to reverse penalty rate cuts and push its living wage policy, which proposes to direc­t the commission next year to identify a living wage target and phase in minimum wage increases for the low-paid workforce.

Mr Shorten and Mr O’Connor said a Labor government would seek to legislate the living wage policy as ‘‘soon as practicable’’.

ACTU president Michele O’Neil will appear on behalf of the peak union body at the commission hearing tomorrow, calling on the panel to support a 6 per cent ­increase to the current minimum wage of $719.20 per 38-hour week.

‘‘No one who works full-time should be living in poverty. This is completely unacceptable and avoidable,” she said.

“The Morrison government has made the decision to abandon these workers.

“Australia should be proud to have been the first nation to establish a living wage, but we need to act now to renew that promise for every worker.

“We can’t allow a conservati­ve government to continu­e to tear down what generations of workers have built. We need to restore a living wage.”