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Issue No. 177 | 09 May 2003 |
Joining The Dots
Interview: Staying Alive Bad Boss: The Ultimate Piss Off Industrial: Last Drinks National Focus: Around the States Politics: Radical Surgery Education: The Price of Missing Out Legal: If At First You Don't Succeed History: Massive Attack Culture: What's Right Review: If He Should Fall Poetry: If I Were a Rich Man Satire: IMF Ensures Iraq Institutes Market Based Looting
Combet Calls On Unions to Muscle Up Hotel Workers Trump Living Wage Abbott Brushes Security Concerns Rebates Thorn in Medicare Side Bosses Infected With SARS Hysteria Entitlements: Bargaining Chip Ploy Fails Nelson Plan Faces Higher Hurdle Public To Pay For Patrick Closure Airline Ratbags Bigger Than Texas Credibility Crisis for World Bank
The Soapbox Solidarity The Locker Room Postcard Bosswatch
Massive Attack Teamwork Tom Solidarity
Labor Council of NSW |
News Hotel Workers Trump Living Wage
Two thousand employees of the Starwood Hotel chain are voting on an enterprise bargaining proposal that would boost average weekly fulltime wages by $62 a week, compared to the $17 granted by the IRC, and introduce six weeks of paid maternity leave. "While the minimum wage decision underlined the crisis of low pay in Australia the Starwood agreement shows unionised workers can challenge the situation," LHMU assistant nation secretary, Tim Ferrari, said. "Workers can win if they act collectively and campaign and negotiate for decent enterprise agreements." The maternity leave breakthrough is a further victory for organised workers as the Federal Government distances itself from promised work and family improvements in next week's budget. Most maternity leave breakthroughs, to this point, have been gained with employers eager to retain to middle to upper income women. The enterprise bargaining proposal came after extensive negotiations between union representatives and Starwood which operates under the Sheraton banner at Brisbane, Noosa and Melbourne; Westin in Melbourne and Sydney; Four Points at Port Macquarie and Geelong; and the W in Sydney. LHMU members in Victoria, NSW and Queensland will consider the agreement at workplace meetings over the next fortnight. Ferrari expects the formal vote on the proposal to be completed by the end of the month. Meanwhile, NSW Labor Council has warned employers to expect "significantly higher" minimum wage increases if Federal Government's proposed changes to Medicare become law. Secretary, John Robertson, said proposed changes would damage the safety net relied on by low paid Australians. "If changes to Medicare shift a cost burden onto workers, particularly the low paid, we will seek to have that absorbed in next year's minimum wage case," Robertson said. "Universal health care is an integral part of the social wage and was something workers invested in by trading off wage rises during the Accord years."
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