FED: ACTU largely fails in wage bid for low paid=2

AAP General News (Australia)
04-29-1999
FED: ACTU largely fails in wage bid for low paid=2

Mr Reith said he was happy with the decision.

"I think it's a fair decision which looks after the interests of the low paid but they're
also mindful that we've got to keep on driving down the unemployment rate and all things
considered I think it's a pretty fair outcome and is certainly the result of good economic
management that the government has put in place," he said.

"Under the Howard government over the past three years the low paid have been well looked
after"

Real wages for low paid workers had increased seven per cent under the Howard government,
compared to the collapse they had suffered under the ACTU Accord and a Labor government.

"Between 1983 and 1990 they fell by eight per cent," Mr Reith said.

"Today's decision also reveals just how irrelevant the ACTU has become to the people they
purport to represent."

AAP ag/mh/wjf/bm

KEYWORD: WAGES LEAD 2 MELB (REOPENS)

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