August 11, 2020

Unions

Nurses and midwives’ super is under attack

by Leave a Comment

The Federal Government is threatening to use the cover of coronavirus to ruin your retirement.

Since the union movement and workers won employer paid superannuation the Liberals have been out to destroy it. Union members fought for superannuation to be paid on top of our wages because all workers should retire with dignity. Compulsory, employer-paid superannuation is your passport to a dignified retirement, and it is essential that the superannuation guarantee rises to 12 per cent to get that.

Next year, on 1 July, your superannuation will go from 9.5 per cent to 10% without having to do a thing. And by 2025 it will reach 12 per cent.  This will add thousands of dollars to your super balance by retirement, which will make a huge difference to your quality of life.

Over the next couple of months, you will hear Liberal politicians, economists, and big business bleat about how super will cost wages or jobs or both. They tried this on us in the 80s and 90s when we won super – workplace by workplace, industry by industry. They tried this on us when we won paid parental leave. And they said that cutting penalty rates for workers would create jobs. But they were wrong every time.

Now they want to cut super and cancel the already legislated increase of super. And the price of them winning is your dignity in retirement.

Super is not perfect and there are things still to address. Women, at the moment, retire with 47 per cent of the superannuation of men, on average. And women over 50 are the fastest growing group of homeless people in Australia. There are real and growing barriers which women face in getting a good retirement. The $450 threshold, that superannuation isn’t paid on parental leave, and super isn’t paid to ABN workers means that women retire with less.

This Government have thrown everything and the kitchen sink at industry super funds, they directed a Productivity Commission inquiry into industry funds, asked the Royal Commission to look into industry funds and are running a parliamentary inquiry trying to tie up industry funds resources. At each test, the industry funds workers built have come out on top. Industry funds perform better and are better run than the scandal-plagued banks and for-profit super funds.

The way we fix this is by reinforcing super, not tearing it down. I haven’t met a single worker near retirement who has said they wish they had less super. Not a single worker is better off by cutting super. We need to reform super to ensure every worker retires with dignity.

Sign this petition to call on the Government to stop their plans to ruin workers’ retirements. 

“Untold hardship for hundreds of thousands”: Morrison’s retirement poverty legacy

by Leave a Comment

Australian Unions have described the Morrison Government’s superannuation withdrawals scheme as a “reprehensible attack on the retirement savings of working Australians”.

In a statement, Australian Unions Assistant Secretary Scott Connolly savaged the scheme, indicating that the long-term poverty created by the move will be “the greatest legacy of this Government… causing untold hardship for hundreds of thousands of people.”

The Morrison Government’s scheme allowed Australians who were economically affected by COVID-19 to access some of their superannuation, to a maximum of $20,000 between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 financial years. 

“The scheme is having a disastrous impact on the retirement savings. A 25-30 year old who withdraws $20,000 over these two years will be $79,000-$95,000 worse off by retirement”, Mr Connolly said.

“The scheme shows that the Morrison Government has not done enough to support working people, and has instead decided to force people to sacrifice their retirements”, he added.

To date, 2.5 million Australians have raided their super through COVID-19, with almost 500,000 people emptying their accounts.

This has led to over $27 billions dollars being withdrawn from superannuation coffers.

PM opens door to paid pandemic leave, after months long union campaign

by Leave a Comment

After four months of campaigning from unions across the country, including the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has asked his Minister for Industrial Relations to begin negotiations with unions and business around the idea.

In an interview, Morrison confirmed that paid pandemic leave was part of “ongoing discussions between government, employer groups and employees on a range of issues around managing the pandemic”. However, when pressed on the nature of these discussions, the Prime Minister did not respond directly to the question.

In a statement on Facebook, Australian Unions secretary Sally McManus lauded the move, saying that it will “save jobs and lives”.

“We welcome the Prime Minister asking the Minister for Industrial Relations to discuss with us paid pandemic leave for all workers”, McManus said. 

“This initiative is a key part of our defence against the spread of COVID-19”.

The Fair Work Commission recently introduced paid pandemic leave for nurses under the Nurses Award 2010. The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association is continuing to negotiate with individual employer groups to have this leave across the profession, as well as lobbying governments to institute the leave for all workers.

Be part of the campaign for paid pandemic leave by joining your nursing and midwifery union. You can join us through this link.

“Morrison must commit to paid pandemic leave”: Australian Unions

by Leave a Comment

In launching its National Economic Reconstruction Plan, Australian Unions have called on the Morrison Government to deliver paid pandemic leave for all working people. 

In a statement, Australian Unions President Michele O’Neil urged the Prime Minister to commit to the special leave, as a way to “protect the livelihoods of Australian workers and businesses”.

“No one should face a financial penalty or risk losing their job so that they can isolate or get tested. Paid pandemic leave needs to happen immediately.

“This is essential in stopping the spread of the virus,” Ms O’Neil said.

A recent Victorian found that 89% of people didn’t self-isolate when feeling unwell, prior to receiving a COVID-19 test. Much of this was attributed to the fact that workers felt they could not afford to take time off work due to feeling ill. 

The Australian Unions plan calls for pandemic leave to be paid at 100% of workers’ pay, regardless of their classification.

Recently, the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation won paid pandemic leave for aged care nurses covered by the Nurses Award. NSW Health nurses and midwives also receive paid pandemic leave.

If you would like to be part of the fight for paid pandemic leave, join the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association today. 

Don’t delay the Super increase

by Leave a Comment

Nurses and midwives stand to lose thousands of dollars a year in retirement income if the Morrison government freezes the superannuation levy.

Is the Morrison government about to take an axe to the retirement savings of workers, including nurses and midwives?

A group of 10 Coalition federal MPs has urged the government to delay or cancel scheduled increases to the compulsory superannuation levy.

They claim employers cannot afford an increase due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Those MPs get superannuation of 15.4 per cent on top of their parliamentary pension and other post-parliamentary benefits.

For the rest of us, superannuation is due to rise from 9.5 per cent to 10 per cent in July 2021 and 12 per cent by 2025.

Freezing the levy at its current rate would cost a 30-year-old worker earning $40,000 a year about $10,000 less each year in retirement, according to former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd.

Rudd said the Liberal Party was “softening the electorate up” for a superannuation freeze even before Covid-19 struck.

He pointed out that the government commissioned a former Liberal government staffer, Mike Callaghan, to head an inquiry into retirement incomes. Callaghan’s report was due in late July.

The public intervention by 10 Liberal MPs “dispelled any doubt as to the strategy” Rudd wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

“You simply do not get one-in-five backbenchers speaking in unison like that unless it has been authorised by the leader, especially when the group includes a gaggle of ministerial aspirants,” he said.

“Using the bushfires and pandemic as political cover, Morrison is determined to fulfil the Liberal Party’s long-held desire to freeze the compulsory super guarantee levy at its current 9.5 per cent rate.”

Pandemic political profiteering

ACTU Assistant Secretary Scott Connolly described Liberal attacks on superannuation as “pandemic political profiteering”.

“If the Liberal Party’s only solution to the problems of the pandemic is to raid people’s super, then they’ve clearly run out of ideas,” Connolly said.

“These backbenchers need to be put in their place by the Morrison government, and workers need to be given reassurance that their retirement savings will go up as currently legislated.”

Until the late 1980s, only high-income earners and public servants enjoyed decent superannuation. Most workers – including almost all women – had no super at all.

From the late 1980s, unions began to win superannuation as a part of enterprise and award bargaining.

Unions set up industry super funds such as Hesta to look after the retirement savings of their members.

In 1992, the Keating Labor government introduced a com-pulsory superannuation levy as part of a tripartite agreement between the government, employers and the unions.

The Liberals opposed any levy.

Labor planned for the levy to reach 15 per cent but the Howard government halted it at 9 per cent.

In 2010, the Rudd government announced it would incrementally raise the rate to 12 per cent by 2020 but Tony Abbott froze the rate at 9.5 per cent in 2014, citing a “budget emergency”.

According to former prime minister Kevin Rudd, this was “classic Abbott bullshit to advance a long-standing, ideological agenda”.

Rudd disputes the current claim by many Liberal MPs that businesses cannot afford a super increase.

He said labour productivity had risen about 9 per cent since the Abbott freeze, easily outstripping the stalled 2.5 per cent rise in contributions.

“They also conveniently ignore that (Rudd’s announced increase to 12 per cent) was coupled with business-friendly measures including a company tax cut, phased implementation and an instant asset write-off.”

The Australian public’s regard for unions is rising

by Leave a Comment

A poll finds a majority of people think Australia would be better off if unions were stronger.

The poll, conducted by Essential for The Guardian found that 50 per cent of Australians indicated we would be better off with strong unions. Only 25 per cent disagreed.

This is a marked increase in the positive perception of unions since the early 2010s when support was less than 40 per cent.

The poll also found that:

  • 74 per cent of respondents agreed that unions provide essential services to their members to ensure they are paid appropriately and have safe working environments
  • 74 per cent agreed that unions give workers more power with employers through a collective voice
  • 67 per cent agreed unions are vital to stop businesses taking advantage of their employees.

Sally McManus, ACTU Secretary, said the research shows that Australians know “who has their back”.

“Unionised workers have steered the country through this pandemic and will continue to play a leading role in the economic rebuild,” she said.

“Pay cuts and cuts to workers’ rights will not help Australia recover. We are working to win more secure jobs and fairer wages.”

The poll came as the Australian Bureau of Statistics released new figures showing unemployment climbing to nearly 1 million people; 227,000 jobs were lost between April and May.