Unions are using this year’s decade-high minimum wage increase to justify pay claims of up to 6 per cent a year in bargaining, prompting warnings of an inflation spiral.
at Westpac and National Australia Bank, saying the Fair Work Commission’s “close analysis of the current economic indicators” showed pay needed to keep up with inflation.
Responding to Westpac’s rejection of its wage claim, which would cover about 20,000 workers, FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano said that “anything less than a 6 per cent increase ... will represent a real wage cut”. A spokesman for the bank said, “our focus for enterprise bargaining is on competitive pay, simpler terms and conditions and continuing to offer employees great benefits”.
She said “for too long” employers had held down wages by arguing low inflation meant wages should be suppressed and could not grow more than the Consumer Price Index.“Now that the Reserve Bank Governor has predicted inflation will hit 7 per cent by the end of the year, employers in the finance sector must respond with wage rises that keep workers’ pay ahead of inflation.”
“He will be finding it hard to miss those signs at present, and the FSU’s pay claim will be bolstered by [Thursday’s] employment data.”