Haggler's form guide to wage and price movements

Suzanne Hammond, Federal Women's Industrial Officer, gives a guide to national wage movements over the past two years in the higher education sector.

WAGE TRENDS 2001 - 2002

Overall wage trends in Australia over the last decade have witnessed growing inequality with the gap between low wage earners and high wage earners increasing.
As far as bargaining outcomes go, union collective agreements deliver higher wage outcomes then non-union collective agreements - there's about a 1% difference. Union members earn about 15% more than non-union members and women and part-time and casual workers who are union members do much better than non-unionised workers.

OVERALL TRENDS

· Unemployment Rate February 2002 seasonally adjusted 6.3 per cent

· Employment growth concentrated in part-time employment.

· CPI December 2001 3.1%

· Earnings generally have grown at 5 per cent while wages have risen 3.4 per cent and wage increases through agreements at close to 4 per cent.

ABS ANNUAL INCREASES 2000 -2001

· AWOTE* WAGE COST INDEX
5.1 % 3.4%
(*average weekly ordinary time earnings)

· Average Weekly earnings

Full-time adult ordinary earnings $849.90
% change Nov 2000 to Nov 2001 6.3
% change Public Sector Nov 2000 to Nov 2001 4.8

· Industry:

Average Weekly earnings November 2001
Full time adult ordinary time

Education $953.00
Government Admin $916.30
Health Community services $839.80
Finance and Insurance $1,057.20

· Percentage change from Corresponding quarter

Education 5.8%
Government Admin 5.1%
Health & Community services 2.8%
Finance and Insurance 10.4%

AGREEMENTS ADAM DATA BASE 2001

· All industries 4%

Community Services (Education, welfare etc) 3.9%
Public Administration (Fed/State/Local govt.) 3.7%

December 2000 4.2%
March 2001 3.7%

· Some General Staff Agreements in the University Sector:

Australian Catholic University

June 2000 $1800 payment
June 2001 3.0%
July 2002 3.0%
June 2002 2.4% plus conditional 1/% - 3.4%

Flinders University 2000-2003

August 2000 1.5%
April 2001 2.0%
September 2002 2.5%
February 2003 2.5%
June 2003 3.5%

La Trobe University 2001 -2003

July 2000 2%
July 2001 3%
July 2002 4%
June 2003 3.5%

Macquarie University 2000-2003

August 2000 3%
August 2001 4%
Nov 2002 4% plus $500.00

LIVING WAGE

Living Wage Adjustment May 2002 $18.00

Federal Minimum increase 4.35%

Federal Minimum weekly wage $431.40

Living Wage adjustment 2000 $15.00

MATERNITY LEAVE:

You'll be aware of the current debate in the community about the provision of paid maternity leave. In Australia most women workers have access to unpaid maternity leave through a myriad of state and federal industrial laws and awards. Paid maternity leave is only available to less than one third of Australian women workers. Of the women in Australia who do receive some benefit, they receive it through employer funded schemes negotiated by trade unions; they usually work in the public sector and in large corporations.

Many of your members will have access to varying degrees of paid maternity leave, however some unions are pushing to improve paid maternity leave benefits. The Wollongong University SRC Agreement allows for an employee with more than two years service to 13 weeks on full pay and a further 39 weeks at 60% salary or paternity leave of 20 days on full pay. The NSW PSA are currently running a campaign to increase maternity leave entitlements - for further details email womens@psa.asn.au

NSW LIBRARIANS EQUAL REMUNERATION TEST CASE

Hagglers might also want to have a look at the outcome of the NSW PSA Librarians test case. The Decision delivered significant wage increases and gave professional recognition to Librarians and Archivists employed in the NSW public sector and TAFE libraries. The CPSU-SPSF website has a summary of the decision to assist delegates and members.
Contact Sue Hammond CPSU-SPSF 02 9290 4508 email shammond@spsf.asn.au

For further information

May 2002 contents