PM Transcripts

port ustnies long-STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MP
VICTORIAN INDIVIDUAL CONTRACT STUDY
116 Victorian contracts have been analysed in a thesis in the Law Faculty at
the ANU by Jocelyn Bell.
She found strong evidence that workers on these contracts have experienced
lost conditions and/ or lower pay. She found:
0 only 1/ 5 stated that there was a wage increase
the majority had penalty rates/ shift loadings reduced or removed
0 1/ 3 had abolished overtime rates, and the majority reduced them
0 half omitted reference to an employee representative in negotiations.
She said Victorian workers on contracts gave more concessions and
appeared to make fewer gains than those protected by the industrial umpire.
She estimated that a retail sales worker who worked Thursday night and
Saturday mornings would have lost around $ 50 a week or 15 per cent of pay
from being on a contract. New entrants were particularly vulnerable.
CAIRNS 28 February 1996 6329
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