NEARLY DEAD WORKCHOICES HAS ONE LAST NASTY GASP

7 July 2009

SA Unions has described today's decision by the inaptly named "Fair Pay" Commission as a final nasty swipe from a discredited Industrial System in its death rattles.

SA Unions Secretary, Janet Giles says just a week after the controversial WorkChoices system was declared dead, the Commission's decision to freeze the pay of the nation's lowest paid workers is an unwelcome last gasp.

"This decision is bad news for South Australia, and will hit the most vulnerable during what is already a difficult time.  It's often women, often the casuals, often migrants and often the young who are at the tail end of the wage scale, and this wage freeze will be a kick in the guts for them."

"For the people sitting on the Commission, $20 a week might not seem like much.  But for a low wage family struggling with rising costs it is a lot."

"It also flies in the face of the federal government's efforts to stimulate the economy - the Government acknowledges the need to get the economy moving by ensuring people have money to spend, but the Commission has ignored this."

"Still it seems Australians are suffering the legacy of the Howard years, almost two years after working Australians voted comprehensively to get rid of their terrible working laws."

"The only comfort we take is that the Commission is on the way out.  We look forward to getting back to a decision making process which is based on legitimate evidence", Ms Giles says.