Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 (No. 131) - Australia (Ratification: 1973)

Article 1(1) of the Convention. Minimum wage system. The Committee notes the adoption and entry into force of the Fair Work Act 2009, which repeals and replaces the Workplace Relations Act 1996. It also notes the establishment of Fair Work Australia, which began operations on 1 July 2009, and replaced the previous Australian Industrial Relations Commission, the Australian Industrial Registry, and the Australian Fair Pay Commission. It further notes that the new Minimum Wage Panel replaced the Fair Pay Commission as the responsible body for annually reviewing and setting minimum wages in Australia. In an annual wage review, the Panel makes a National Minimum Wage Order which sets minimum wages for employees who are not covered by an industry-specific modern award. According to the latest data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than 15 per cent of all Australian employees are award-reliant. The Government further indicates that the Panel’s decision might also affect other wages indirectly by acting as a floor for wage increases or workplace bargaining, considering that 36 per cent of federal enterprise collective agreements were linked in some way to annual wage review outcomes. The Committee requests the Government to provide in future reports updated information on the implementation of the Fair Work Act and the operation of the Minimum Wage Panel.

Moreover, the Committee notes the Government’s statement that following the decision of all states other than Western Australia to refer their industrial relations power to the Commonwealth, the New South Wales industrial relations jurisdiction now applies only to the New South Wales public sector. It also notes that the New South Wales’ Industrial Relations Act 1996 was amended by the Industrial Relations Amendment (Public Sector Conditions of Employment) Act 2011, inserting section 146C, which requires that the New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission give effect to any policy on conditions of employment of public sector employees when making or varying awards or orders in relation to the remuneration of public sector employees. In this respect, the Committee notes the comments of the ACTU which considers that the new legislation empowers the Government to effectively dictate wages outcomes to the state tribunal responsible for setting fair and reasonable wages for the state public sector for decades. The ACTU is of the view that this will have a negative effect on more than 300,000 public sector employees of New South Wales and that by constraining the tribunal processes and independence the legislation contravenes the principles set out in the Convention. The Committee requests the Government to communicate any comments it may wish to make in reply to the observations of the ACTU.

Article 2(1). Differentiated minimum wage rates based on age or disability. Further to its previous comment, the Committee notes the Government’s explanations that of the 122 new modern awards, 70 include differentiated minimum wage rates for junior workers while the special national minimum wage order for award/agreement free junior employees also prescribes differentiated rates on the basis of age. The Government further indicates that as regards employees with disability, where a worker’s productivity is not affected by their disability the employee is entitled to be paid the relevant adult, junior or training rate. In this connection, the Committee notes the comments of the ACTU, which has significant concerns with the adequacy of minimum wages for juniors, trainees and apprentices taking into account relative living standards, increases in the cost of living and the principle of equal pay for work of equal or comparable value. The Committee requests the Government to transmit any comments it may wish to make in response to the observations of the ACTU.

Article 5 and Part V of the report form. Enforcement measures and application in practice. The Committee notes the detailed statistics provided by the Government concerning minimum wage enforcement measures and the results obtained in different states and territories as well as the inspection activities carried out by the Fair Work Ombudsman. It also notes the Government’s indication that the Victorian Government has not commissioned any relevant data while Tasmania does not maintain statistical information on this area despite the fact that numerous instances of back pay and underpayment to Tasmanian private sector workers have been reported. The Committee would be grateful if the Government could provide additional clarifications in this respect and also continue to supply up-to-date information on these matters.