Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Kate Carnell backs real cuts to wages
Ewin Hannan

    The Australian
    November 05, 2014

MOST workers need to accept real wage cuts, business says, warning jobs will be lost if unions and employees continue to expect inflation-linked pay rises without productivity improvements.      

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Kate Carnell said annual pay rises of 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent should be the norm in bargaining where ­productivity has not increased.

Ms Carnell yesterday backed Tony Abbott signalling an across-the-board reduction in public service wages, and his warning no one should expect a better deal than the real-terms pay cut imposed on Defence personnel.      

“We actually all have to accept that the federal budget is under pressure, that the budgets of many Australian businesses are under pressure,’’ she told The Australian.

“If we want to keep people at work then we are going to have to accept wage rises that are not in line with CPI.’’ Asked if 1 per cent to 2 per cent increases were acceptable to business, she said that, while pay rises would vary by ­industry, “those sort of figures would be in line’’ with the profit­ability levels of most business since the global financial crisis.

“There’s a sort of disconnect in the public debate between this sort of view that CPI is sort of a right and just what you would expect even though business profitability hasn’t increased by CPI in many industries since the GFC,’’ she said.

Ms Carnell said Australian workers were some of the highest paid in the world which was “absolutely fine as long as they have the productivity to back that up’’.

“Where you have got a very large percentage of Australian businesses that haven’t seen improvements and, in fact, have seen reductions in profitability since the GFC, it makes it really hard for business to manage CPI year after year,’’ she said.

“What’s happened, as a result of that, in many cases is that businesses have reduced staff.’’

ACTU secretary Dave Oliver accused Ms Carnell of advocating a real wage cut for workers “across the country’’. Mr Oliver said her arguments were “claptrap’’, and that the productivity of workers and business profitability was up.

Defending the below-inflation pay rises awarded to Defence personnel, Mr Abbott said the budget position meant “there’s going to have to be very tight pay restraint across the public sector’’.      

The Defence Remuneration Tribunal on Monday approved a 1.5 per cent pay rise for military personnel each year for three years, a move branded “insulting” by defence advocates

“We’re going to see restraint across the whole of the public sector and I would be very surprised if anyone in the commonwealth public sector receives more than is received by our Defence Forces,’’ the Prime Minister said.      

Mr Oliver said it was a disgrace Defence personnel had incurred a real wage cut

The Community and Public Sector Union said government employees were “not going to sit back and accept losing most of their rights in return for pay offers that are sitting at less than 1 per cent a year’’.

“Unlike soldiers, public sector workers are allowed to fight back,’’ the union’s national secretary, ­Nadine Flood, said.

the push to bring our wages to 3rd world standards is really in high gear now that the monkey is PM ...

business needs to accept that this isn't China and our wages need to match our costs of living ... when was the last time business accepted a cut in profits?

Ok.....the 1% ers and parliamentarians first.

By the time that extra money trickles down, the lowly wage earners might not need to take a pay cut after all.

I take it she's accepting an equivalent drop in salary and perks?

If not she can STFU....

Grappler Deep State Feller wrote on Nov 5^th, 2014 at 11:25am:


Managers believe that they deserve a huge bonus if they can contain wages. This will be written into their package in terms of a performance benchmark.

It is probable that having this article published will contribute to Kate's performance rating and her bonus.

Quote:


I wonder where the increased cost to the consumer is coming from then ? In basic terms the CPI is the amount that these guys have increased their prices. The CPI is a measure of the increased cost of things. My view is that she is full of brown stuff and may benefit from the use of the suppository of all wisdom where it is meant to go.

CPI 2.3%
Food 3.5%
Alcohol and Tobacco 7.3%
Health 4.7%
etc.
some down
Clothing -2%

Dnarever wrote on Nov 5^th, 2014 at 11:24am:


Have you borrowed Armie's armchair. Productivity has been slipping for over a decade.

Kate Carnell....

She bought her own pharmacy business in Red Hill in 1981. She owned and managed the pharmacy until 2000.[1]

She was the inaugural chair of the ACT Branch of the Australian Pharmacy Guild,[4] serving in the position between 1988 and 1994.[5] as well as National Vice-President of the guild between 1990 and 1994.

Among other positions she was: Chairman of the Canberra and Southern District Pharmacists Company Ltd (1982–1992), Vice-President of the Retail Industry and Training Council, ACT (1987–1991), Councillor at the Australian Institute of Pharmacy Management (1990–1991), Member of the ACT Board of Health (1990–1991), and a Member of the Pharmacy Restructuring Authority (1990–1991).

Note, not only the positions, but the over-lapping dates of same.

All while running her own business???

Would I be wrong in presuming that she did all this extra work 'Pro Bono'??