VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org
(Low wages are bad enough without being swindled into the bargain, Source: UWU Facebook page)
In May this year the Fair Work Commission will hand down its National Wage Case Decision which will determine the minimum wage rates that will apply in Awards from July 2026. The ACTU on behalf of affiliated Unions has put in claim for 5% increase in the Awards rates of pay for all classifications. Various employer organizations have argued that the Commission should determine that there be no wage increases at all or at least no wage increase in any Award greater than 3.5%.
The 5% wage increase claim by the ACTU is nowhere enough to provide a real wage increase for the still many thousands of workers paid under Awards given the current rising cost of living crisis for the working class.
Real wage increases to the Award minimum wage rates also benefit workers who are paid above- Award wage rates under Enterprise Agreements as a real wage increase in the Award enables workers under Agreements to pressure their employers to at least maintain relativity to their industry Award wage rates.
In the early 1990s the federal ALP government changed industrial laws to diminish the power of Unions to improve wages and working conditions across a whole industry. The new industrial laws made site and/or employer specific enterprise bargaining as the way for workers to improve wages and working conditions.
This inevitably divided workers across industries and within the same industry and even within the same employer where an employer had more than one worksite.
For the working class as a whole, the move away from Awards as the main method for increasing wages and improving working conditions arguably increased the surplus value extracted from the labor of the working class as a whole.
When the Liberal/National Party government managed the capitalist economy on behalf of big business between 1996 and 2007, it tried to return the Australian working class to pre-Award days by legislating individual contracts called Australian Workplace Agreements as the main method of determining all workers' wages and conditions.
The capitalist class's own economists proudly announced year after year that the percentage of the capitalist Gross Domestic Product attributed to wages and salaries was declining and the percentage attributed to profits was increasing.
The capitalist class has historically opposed regulation of wages and conditions and whenever workers have attempted to improve minimum wages and conditions by regulation.
This has been the case even in the services sectors of the economy which the big corporations and their governments call "non-core" sectors of the economy.
NOT A "TRIVIAL" MATTER
A striking example of this occurred in South Australia in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
In 1929 the Federated Miscellaneous Workers Union made an application to the state Industrial Court for a Common Rule Award to regulate the wages and conditions of caretakers and cleaners.
The application was for such an Award to cover caretakers and cleaners in the inner city and metropolitan area of Adelaide. At that time the owners of office buildings in Adelaide including the Savings Bank of SA and various Insurance companies directly "employed" caretakers and cleaners on individual employment arrangements with no minimum pay and conditions at all. Some of the companies and office building owners remunerated caretakers and cleaners by part money payment and part payment in kind such as provision of lunch and especially with caretakers a room to live in within the building.
The employers argued that the Union's application for an Award for caretakers and cleaners was "trivial" and "not in the public interest" and that these workers were "looked after" well by their benevolent masters!
The Union won the day and for the first time these semi-indentured caretakers and cleaners became "free" wage workers with regulated minimum wages and conditions.
The vast majority of the caretakers and cleaners were males and worked full time hours of 44-48 hours a week Monday to Saturday or Monday to Friday and half a day on Saturday.
The benevolent capitalist owners of the buildings in the inner city and inner metropolitan area did not like having "their" property services workers having basic Award rights and conditions of employment.
They created cleaning companies which were registered as businesses with the relevant government department. They then entered into a commercial cleaning services contract with the newly created contract cleaning companies. The contract cleaning companies were not bound by the Award (then called a Determination of the Court) as were the capitalist owners of the buildings.
The contract cleaning companies were able to pay caretakers and cleaners on less than the new Award and compete with other contract cleaning companies.
The owners of the buildings thought this was pretty good - a return to the "good old days" of a completely de-regulated property services.
The Miscellaneous Workers Union of course supported its members and applied to the Court to vary the scope of the Award (Determination) so that it covered contract cleaning companies as well.
In 1933 the contract cleaning companies were bound by the Award (Determination) as well.
Competition between the contract cleaning companies for cleaning services contracts with the city and metropolitan property owners started the still existing "race to the bottom" on price.
Cleaning companies started to win cleaning contracts by cutting hours of work. Full time cleaners became the exception, and cleaners became employed as part -time workers or casual on as little as two-hour shifts.
Workload of cleaners increased dramatically as did turn over of cleaners.
When caretakers and cleaners were directly employed by the building owners prior to the making of the Award (Determination), they undoubtedly increased and maintained the use value of the buildings they cleaned, contributing to the owner's ability to maintain and attract tenants willing to pay the rent and pay increases in rent. In that sense caretakers and cleaners were remunerated amounts less than the value they added to the buildings.
When the caretakers and especially the cleaners became employed by the contract cleaning companies they continued to provide a use value for the building owner. However that is not the prime reason why the contract cleaning companies employed them. The prime reason was so that the cleaning companies made a profit from the surplus value created by the cleaners. This surplus value was created mainly by work intensification, a trend that continues to this day.
That is why any increase in the minimum Award rates of pay is still so important today for cleaners. Caretakers are rarely employed now by property owners of large buildings. The minor maintenance duties and specialized trade work is provided by property maintenance services companies who, like the cleaning companies, are about making profits from the work performed by those they employ.