Posted by John, September 21st, 2009 - under Uncategorised.

Tags: Australian bourgeoisie, Australian Labor Party, Australian politics, Bonuses, Bosses pay, Bourgeoisie, Capitalism, Fair Pay Commission, Fair Work Australia

I don’t often read Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph. But this week’s headline – Bosses’ salary bonanza – caught my eye.

So I shelled out $1.80 to read what this was about. And sure enough they were right.

At the time of the greatest downturn since the Great Depression, the bosses have been increasing their pay. The Sunday Telegraph put it this way:

Of the 32 top 100 Australian companies to have reported from the last financial year, 18 CEOs have taken pay rises averaging 10 percent.

Just to put this in perspective, over the same financial year the Australian share market fell 25 per cent. Company profits fell 18 percent.

But the real obscenity is that while our bosses were paying themselves even more for the failures of their system, that same system froze the pay of low paid workers.

Ten percent for the filthy rich bosses, nothing for the low paid. That really does sum up the obscenity that is capitalism.

On top of that, for those who do keep their job, reduced hours means a cut in real take home pay.

While we are going backwards the bosses are racing ahead.

The sums involved are mind boggling. The average salary of the top 32 companies that have reported so far is $1.8 million, and that’s before bonuses and benefits. These extras can increase remuneration five fold.

The Sunday Telegraph did mention in the ensuing article, Crisis-proof pay packets, that its owner, Rupert Murdoch, had kept his base salary steady at $9 million. News Limited has plummeted in value over the last year.

Clearly remuneration for Rupert isn’t linked to results.

Rod Quinn retired last financial year as CEO of Qantas. He received nearly S11m for 5 months work. Qantas has sacked 1750 workers and is outsourcing more work. Its profit fell 88 percent.

Quinn made $100,000 a day. As Alan Kohler quipped on ABC TV, Quinn ‘earned’ the average wage before lunch. Not bad for a morning’s work.

The Telegraph article also mentioned Marius Kloppers, the head of BHP Billiton.

His salary is $2.4 million. The average wage is $60,000.

How is anyone worth 40 times more than the average worker in their company?

But it gets worse.

Klopper’s ‘total remuneration package’ went from $US6,873,642 in the previous year to $US 10,399,589 last year. This is a 51 percent increase.

Marius is worth 200 times more than the average worker in BHP Billiton. Really.

Ad what did this super genius preside over? A drop in profit of 61 percent.

So for Marius it is a 50 percent increase in remuneration.

And for his low paid workers? Nothing. Zilch. Sweet fuck all.

That’s for those who Marius kept on. This parasite also sacked 3000 workers.

This bloodsucker and his draculean mates are being rewarded for sacking people.

Don’t tell me class is dead.

There is no regulation of these obscene salaries, sorry, remuneration packages. Evidently we have to attract the best people to oversee a 25 percent fall in value.

Imagine what might have happened if these vultures on our labour hadn’t been in charge.

Compare the lack of regulation of the bosses’ pay with the plethora of laws workers have to abide by to get a pittance, or in the case of low paid workers, nothing.

Howard’s Workchoices legislation was over 600 pages long – all of it designed to prevent workers and their unions winning better pay and conditions.

Labor’s Fair Work Australia is another marathon of dribble.

It has the same goal as Workchoices, namely to stop workers fighting for and winning real wage increases and better conditions, but with an element of agreement and negotiation thrown in.

Evidently it is OK to attack wages and conditions as long as our trade union leaders agree to it.

Maybe we should turn the world upside down. Let unions and their members have a free hand to win whatever wage increases they can above guaranteed consumer price index increases.

Instead of screwing the low paid let the ‘Fair’ Pay Commission determine what level of remuneration the profit bludgers should get.

The average wage seems about right to me.