http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22517596-5001024,00.html?from=public_rss

AWA workers around $100 'worse off'
Article from: AAP

October 02, 2007 08:48am

A STUDY funded by the Federal Government and unions says workers onAustralian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) are generally low skilled andaround $100 a week worse off than those on collective agreements.

A NEW study funded by the Federal Government and unions says workers onAustralian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) are generally low skilled andaround $100 a week worse off than those on collective agreements.

The Australia at Work study, billed as the most comprehensive yet,surveyed more than 8,000 workers, concluding that those on AWAs earnedon average $106 a week less than those on collective agreements withboth groups working an average 44 hours a week.

Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey slammed the study, suggestingit lacked credibility as it was part union funded, produced byunion-friendly academics and released just before the election.

The study was conducted by the University of Sydney with funding fromthe federal government's Australian Research Council and Unions NSW.

It covered the introduction of the government's fairness test which isaimed at ensuring workers can't trade away conditions without faircompensation.

Lead researcher Dr Brigid van Wanrooy said the study assessed theimpact of the government's Work Choices legislation after a year andwent beyond broad brush claims that everyone was either worse off orbetter off.

Dr van Wanrooy said particularly striking was the finding that skilledworkers with better bargaining power did best on individual common lawcontracts while low skilled workers did best when covered by collectiveagreements.

The study found those on AWAs were more likely to be young workers inlow skilled jobs. Forty-six per cent of those on AWAs said they did nothave the opportunity to negotiate pay.

"Low skilled workers were doing the best on collective arrangements.They were earning roughly $100 more per week than low skilled workerson AWAs," she told ABC radio.

"We are talking about childcare workers, shop assistants, call centreworkers, labourers. They told us how much they were earning and onaverage it is $100 less."

Dr van Wanrooy said these AWAs would still be able to pass the fairnesstest as they were still better than the award agreements.

"Our findings just showed that workers just do better if they are negotiating collectively," she said.

"These new AWAs were giving less opportunity for employees to negotiate pay with their employer," she said.

"More than a third of young workers aged 16 to 24 were on these newAWAs and more than half of them occurred among low skilled workers whowe were shown aren't getting the best outcomes."

Dr van Wanrooy defended the study's credibility, saying to gain ARCfunding required the research methods to be scrutinised by a panel ofexperts.

"Unions NSW have put a substantial amount of money into this researchand there is no point of them spending that money to produce biasedstatistics," she said.

"This is a long-term research project and they see the value ofcollecting rigorous data which will enable them to contributeeffectively to the debate," she said.

The ABC cited a spokeswoman for Mr Hockey who said the government gaveno credibility to yet another report from the same union academics.

Mr Hockey said that so far there had been some 14 union-funded, union-commissioned reports into Work Choices.

He said the reality was that real wages had increased and some 400,000 jobs had been created under the coalition government.

Mr Hockey said unions were trying to push against the tide which isthat workers in Australia have more jobs and higher wages under theHoward government.

"The fundamental fact is, according to the Australian Bureau ofStatistics, that people on Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) earnnearly twice as much as people on awards," he told ABC radio.

"Now, the unions can commission as much research as they want fromunion-friendly academics who have previously done a lot of work for theACTU.

"But, at the end of the day, real wages, that is wages in people'spockets, have increased by more than 3 per cent since we introducedWork Choices and 417,000 new jobs have been created of which 85 percent are fulltime."

Prime Minister John Howard said ABS found that people were better off under AWAs.

"They tell us that wages after inflation have risen by three per centsince the new industrial relations system came into operation."