Employers want pay rises delayed

Employer groups want pay rises for Australia's 1.4 million minimum wage earners
delayed until 2011 so bosses can cope with upcoming industrial changes.
Some retailers even want to be spared having to pay any increase to the nation's
cleaners, shop assistants and security guards.
The ACTU has hit back, arguing the demands of big business are unfair and would hurt
an economic recovery.
The nation's working poor have not been awarded a pay rise since 2008, but bosses
say they will struggle with higher wages as they also adjust to new national award
standards.
All major employer groups have taken aim at the ACTU's call for minimum wage earners
to be given a $27 a week pay increase.
The Australian Industry Group (Ai Group), which represents 60,000 businesses, is
instead calling for a $12 rise to the existing $544 weekly minimum wage.
"Being too ambitious would risk the jobs of the very people that the wage review is
intended to help," chief executive Heather Ridout said.
She also wants the introduction of a new minimum wage delayed for six months, until
early 2011, so employers can adjust to new national modern awards.
The new industrial umpire Fair Work Australia's annual wage review decision is due
to come into effect in July, but this also coincides with the start date of 120
national awards replacing 4000 state standards.
Firms adjusting to both circumstances would start paying the new minimum wage from
January 1, 2011, instead of July 2010, under the Ai Group's submission to Fair Work
Australia.
ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence described the pay freeze call as unfair, arguing it
would jeopardise an economic recovery.
"That would make it more than two years since the low-paid got a wage rise," he said.
"People earning less than $15 an hour should not have to wait that long without a
pay increase."
In a 272-page submission to Fair Work Australia, the ACTU argues its $27 a week wage
claim will not add to inflationary or economy-wide pay pressures.
The federal government declines to nominate a specific figure in its 106-page
submission but it said downside risks to the economic outlook remained for the year
ahead.
"In broader terms, the economy is also expected to continue operating below capacity
for some time," it said.
The old Australian Fair Pay Commission froze the minimum wage in 2009, the first
freeze in 15 years.
But this hasn't stopped retailers demanding concessions from Fair Work Australia.
The Australian National Retailers Association - the lobby group for supermarket
titans Coles and Woolworths - wants a $10 weekly increase in the minimum wage to be
delayed until October.
The National Retail Association - which represents Myer, Kmart and Pizza Hut - wants
employers to be exempted from paying any minimum wage increase if the costs of
adjusting to award modernisation are higher.
The broader Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is advocating weekly
minimum wage rises of between $10.50 and $12.50.