Tougher action is needed to rein in executive salaries and bonuses: unions
What is not debated is the reality that our rulers…whether fat-cat corporate CEO’s or Cabinet Ministers and
MPs and senior Bureaucrats and the judiciary… all operate in their own exclusive salary fixing system that they deny to their workforce.
So those workers who create the surplus value and profit out of which executives take their salaries are denied their boss’s system.
The economic elite system is uncapped seeking market heights. When new salary levels are set they are comparatively flowed onto other executives.
For MPs and senior public servants and judges, pattern bargaining, comparative wage justice and similar pay for the same work is applied – all determined by their own MP arbitration system.
These reasonable features have been taken away for all employees by Parliament – Liberal/ALP MPs.
Wage increases flow nationally throughout all the judiciary, all senior public servants and for all MPs throughout all state parliaments…and always a per centage, never a flat amount!
The Labor government could legislate through the Corporations power to cap CEO salaries…it does so
for the workforce but not for the economic and political elite!
Below is the 30 September, 2009 ACTU repsonse,
Tougher action is needed to rein in executive pay and send a strong message to corporate Australia that the greed-fuelled risk-taking that led to the Global Financial Crisis will no longer be tolerated, say unions.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said the Productivity Commission report had let working Australians down by not recommending a cap on excessive CEO pay.
“The commission has made some moves towards giving shareholders more say over the salaries and bonuses made to CEOs, but it should have gone much further,†Ms Burrow said.
“These are just baby steps when a big leap is needed.
“Tighter rules of corporate governance and increased board accountability and transparency are long overdue, and the proposed ‘two strikes’ rule to sack boards that repeatedly approve unacceptable remuneration packages is positive. But these are only minimal proposals that will not solve the problem.
“The Commission’s report confirms that the payments made to Australian CEOs have got way out of synch with the rest of the workforce and community expectations. Excessive CEO pay is one import from the United States – like the GFC – that Australia can do without.
“It is obscene that a company CEO is paid 50 times average weekly earnings. No-one is worth that sort of money.
“The outrageous multi-million salaries that have continued to be paid to Australian CEOs this year show corporate Australia has lost its moral compass.â€
Ms Burrow said it was disappointing that the Commission had not recommended a strict cap on executive remuneration.
Unions have proposed that the salaries of company chiefs should be capped at a maximum 10 times the average earnings of employees within that company.
Companies should also be taxed at a higher rate for paying CEO salaries over $1 million.
“Working Australians have made enormous sacrifices over the past year to help businesses survive the downturn, and it is both demoralising and hypocritical for CEOs to continue to be rewarded with bulging pay packets.
“Employees should not be the only ones bearing the burden of the economic downturn,†Ms Burrow said.
“Excessive salaries and bonuses contributed to the GFC by encouraging risk-taking and short-term thinking that undermined the sustainability of businesses and the financial system.
“We cannot afford a continuation of business as usual that led to the GFC. Tough action on CEO pay is needed to prevent a repeat of the global economic crisis.â€
Labour Law
Ms Burrows favorite word is tough. I gather that she thinks that if it said often enough – as an incantation possibly – that the word itself will conjure up tough working class actions. The problem is that so far this method does not appear to be working.
Who is Ms Burrows speaking to? Those whom she chastises are the very people who hold the strings of power. They are unlikely, and unwilling to take charge of their own moral compasses – self regulation fails all of the time.
If she is talking to the ‘working families’ they need more than tough talk. If tough action is to be taken surely she means that the wage slaves need to take the situation in hand?
If so we are yet to hear of anything that resembles tough action or any of the necessary tough questions that we as unionists need to consider if we are to get tough.
I think a little more hard yakka from our highly paid ACTU leaders might be the go.