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‘Stolen Entitlements’: The 1997 Living Wage Case

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Braham Dabscheck
Braham Dabscheck*
Affiliation:
School of Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour, University of New South Wales
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Abstract

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In April 1997 the Australian Industrial Relations Commission established a federal minimum award wage of $359.40 per week, and awarded a $10 per week safety net increase for workers who had been unable to obtain wage increases under the regime of enterprise bargaining. The Commission produced a split decision, the first time this has occurred in twenty years. This article provides a commentary on the respective decisions of the majority and minority. It examines the background or context of the case, the claims of the parties, and the reasoning of the majority and minority in their respective decisions. The case reveals a widening gap in the income of workers. Those without bargaining power are falling behind in both real and relative terms, in the regulatory world of enterprise bargaining. The situation has only been partially addressed by the decision in this case.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , June 1997 , pp. 129 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1997

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