The Age
9/11/98

Minister rules out
minimum wage cut

By Judy Heywood

The Employment and workplace Relations Minister, Mr Peter Reith, yesterday ruled out cutting the minimum wage, despite welcoming a report that suggests doing so would create 900,000 jobs.
"It does not foreshadow any change in the Government's thinking or any departure from our stated policy," he said. But "we do welcome the report because it sets out a case for change and the objective of that change is to create jobs".
Mr Reith said the report was one of a number commissioned by the Council of Labor Ministers recently. It was commissioned "because there was a feeling among some of the state ministers, including myself, that we hadn't really seen the argument for further deregulation properly put," he said.
He said the report's author, Mr Des Moore, was a widely respected economist and his findings were a solid contribution to debate. The report will be publicly released later this month after it is presented to the Council of Labour Ministers meeting on 27 November.
Mr Reith said the report revealed that Australia had a greater number of working poor than the US, which was little known in Australia.

His comments came as the ACTU launched a campaign highlighting "work overload" amongst people in employment, The ACTU secretary, Mr Bill Kelty , urged workers to boycott overtime and take all rostered breaks as a protest against overwork.
The ACTU says overwork is costing industry $1.4 billion a year in stress related absenteeism. On Friday, unions throughout the country will ask their members to work only their rostered hours, take breaks and perform only the tasks they are trained for as part of the week-long campaign.
It is the employers' responsibility to ensure a healthy and safe workplace and systems of work," Mr Kelty said. "Workloads and hours of work which do not pose a risk to health and safety must be an integral part of this."