Here’s a useful example of how hatred of workers is ingrained in both Australian business and the business press.
In The Australian Financial Review today, you’ll find a piece conveying the thoughts of Wesfarmers CEO Rob Scott on Australian workers, claiming that wages growth is going to push interest rates up. Rising wages are “a risk for the nation, and it’s a risk for the economy”, Scott is reported as saying, because “unfortunately productivity is very weak. Unit labour costs over the last year have gone up 5.8%, so those domestic cost pressures are certainly putting pressure on prices.”
Scott’s chairman, Michael Chaney, chipped in to falsely claim that the government’s changes to casual employment laws would make it harder to employ casuals and reduce wages. As Crikey has previously noted, the business attacks on the changes proposed by Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke, including by Wesfarmers, are based on the bizarre claim that workers will be worse off financially and businesses will also face higher costs.
Scott and Chaney’s comments were reported by the Fin with no fact-checking or analysis as to their accuracy, just reported verbatim as if they were the unimpeachable truth.
The level of wages growth in the most recent quarter for which we have data, the June quarter, shows annual growth at 3.7% for the private sector. In the year to June, inflation was 6%. That means private sector workers’ real wages fell by a whopping 2.3%. If Scott thinks that wages falling by that amount is “a risk for the nation, and it’s a risk for the economy”, then what does he think would be a safe level? A fall of 3%? 5%? More?
But, see, Rob Scott would know a thing or two about low wages. Wesfarmers is a wage thief. Its industrial group underpaid 6,000 workers by $15 million. It underpaid Target staff by $9 million. Bunnings failed to pay super worth $6 million to its staff. Wesfarmers has been doing its own little bit to make sure wages don’t grow too much.
At that time, Scott argued against harsher penalties for wage theft, saying “inadvertent administrative errors” shouldn’t be punished. But now he feels confident demanding that workers suffer even more dramatic wage cuts.
As for the lack of productivity that Scott laments, we should stick to the June quarter — which as we pointed out earlier this month saw a big drop in productivity. But in that quarter Australian workers also worked more hours than ever before in the history of the economy. Why did productivity fall? A third of it was because bad weather and maintenance schedules saw big falls in iron ore, oil and gas production. That’s not exactly in Wesfarmers’ wheelhouse, but the company owns a developing lithium miner, so you’d think Scott would be across productivity issues in mining, rather than blaming it on workers. The other big contributor to the productivity decline was slumping retail demand caused by interest rate rises, meaning all those extra hours being worked were accompanied by only a small increase in output. But, yeah, Rob, blame workers.
Wesfarmers is the West Australian School for Stupidity with some prestigious alumni. Richard Goyder was CEO before Scott, prior to his joining the Qantas board, where he has covered himself in glory ever since as Alan Joyce ran amok. Chaney, another former CEO, was chair of the National Australia Bank while the Big Four banks were engaged in a litany of sins that led to the banking royal commission — along with gigs with climate criminal Woodside and BHP. And let’s not forget Jennifer Westacott, now a director of Wesfarmers but of course best-known for her stint turning the Business Council of Australia — long more or less controlled by Wesfarmers — into Australia’s most derided lobby group.
And let’s talk about the general line from Australian business that Labor is wreaking havoc with its industrial relations changes, giving too much power to unions and workers and deterring job growth and investment. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ industrial disputes data, in the year to June — so encompassing Labor’s time in office — industrial disputes have averaged 1.4 days per 1,000 workers per quarter. How many were being lost under the Coalition? In the five years to June 2022, they averaged 2.3 days per 1,000 employees per quarter.
Even in construction — constantly portrayed by the Coalition as a lawless sector under the thumb of the bike chain-wielding thugs of the CFMMEU — days lost have averaged 2.6 per 1,000 per quarter compared to 4 in the five years to June 2022. That’s despite Murdoch drones and Michaelia “Chuckles” Cash claiming the Albanese government was “turning a blind eye” to thuggery in the sector.
You’ll search in vain in The Australian Financial Review for those figures, as well. Pathological hatred of workers runs very deep. And anything that doesn’t fit the narrative of hate tends to get ignored.
ok, there are going to be strong opinions either way on this. So how about a compromise? Let’s rule out any punishment for all those “inadvertent administrative errors” that result in overpayment of workers, while coming down like the proverbial ton of bricks on the other sort of “inadvertent administrative errors”. Fair?
Question to those CEO’s: Have you ever tried running a business without workers (OR without customers)?
Ricardo Semler (Brazillian business owner of a very big group of companies) authored a book “Maverick” in 1993 describing haw he had turned the businesses around by listening to the workers, implementing their ideas, empowering them in many other ways, resulting in the companies returning to high profitability during hyper inflation in Brazil.
Sam Walton (Walmart owner USA, wealthiest person in the world before Bill Gates) knew more about his on-the-shopfloor workers (names, family details – birthdays, health etc) than the top executives. He drove an old pick-up truck and flew economy class.
A good horse trainer makes sure that his best horses have the best feed and care to ensure that they win races.
Unfortunately, these CEO’ wear blinkers.
Yeah Herbie – it’s business 101 hey.
One wonders if they understand demographic decline, or do, but are using narratives that ‘masking’ to avoid competitive threats of empowered employees, unions and awards?
Since 2009 working age cohort of 20-64 in the permanent population (ex. long term NOM net overseas migration churn with restricted work rights) has been ind elcine or stagnant as boomers transition to retirement, ending end of the decade.
Ageing and demographic decline should allow employees and unions more leverage, unless they too believe the RW MSM myths of equating international students & backpackers with permanent migrants and ‘high immigration’, while working age cohort in decline, is expected to support budgets via PAYE taxes for above median age voters, business and LNP?
You deadset function in another world, where students and temporary migrants neither work, nor consume resources like housing, schools, hospitals, roads, public transport, water, etc, etc.
Presume you are not for the ‘workers’? You do rant and rave too much on behalf of powers that be, while egregiously ignoring data trends; Oz nativist stereotype encouraged by RW FIRE MSM & amplified by MB?
Entirely the opposite.
LOL. The only person here who rants and raves in favour of the status quo is you.
You mean the data trends like stagnant wages ? Ever increasing house prices and rents ? Declining rental vacancies ? Flatlining productivity ?
As above, the only one “egregiously ignoring data trends” is you, because the only one you’re even looking at is a dodgy dependency ratio.
Like I said, deadset in another world.
Here you go again, old nativist authoritarian conservative preference, like fossil fueled talking points of MB & RW MSM, for shouting opinions, beliefs & sentiments at people from a wannabe bully pulpit, to bypass grounded data and analysis; who needs science, back to the 19thC?
Just meaningless babble.
CEO wants lower wages?
OK, but CEOs first.
Also, doesn’t poor productivity suggest poor management?
Yes it does. Keane & Dyer have written often about it, including of course those areas of productivity that are entirely down to management. But somehow it’s always the workers that cop the blame.
It’s also worth noting how incentives by payment operate. For the less well paid, and anybody on welfare, cuts in income are the approved incentive to work harder. On the other hand, those on very high incomes can only be persuaded to do their jobs at all by adding huge pay rises, bonuses, pension contributions, share options and so on on top of their already colossal salaries. It’s a funny old world.
There’s a story from the UK parliament in the early 1970s when the Tories were in power under PM Edward Heath and bashing the workers was again very popular as Britain’s economy slid into recession. Large, rotund, red-faced Oxford graduate Reginald Maudling, Home Secretary, was addressing the House on the shortcomings of the British car worker. He said each German car worker would complete some impressive number of cars every week, a Japanese car worker some other big number, and so on, while the useless lazy British worker would only build a much small number. As Maudling’s words sank in on the House, Labour MP Dennis Skinner, a somewhat rough-edged working class individual also known as the Beast of Bolsover, shouted ‘How many cars can you build in a week, Fats?’
Maudling had to resign not much later for his involvement in the huge scandal of fraudulent building developer and architect John Poulson. (A lightly fictionalised version of the Poulson scandal and his terrible buildings was a big part of the excellent TV series Our Friends in the North.)
Yes, and those who demand productivity is viewed as an empirical headline average, but ignoring the human aspects, intangibles and qualitative factors; Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management of the early 20thC for 21stC production or assembly lines.
Australian managers are notoriously sub par. Most of the managers I worked for were very ordinary, no imagination, continuously using antiquated ideas that were proven failures, refusing to to adapt or think things through. Worse than useless most of them.
Good article. Can’t wait for the moment when our business leaders, atop their mountains of money and influence, stop using the word ‘workers’ and start using the word ‘peasants.’
“peasants” is still better than “human resources”