home | news l

War waged on black workers

By Chris Graham

Queensland Government reconciles ... its bank balance

21 July 2004 - The Queensland Beattie government knew it owed Aboriginal workers more than $70 million in under-award wage reparations but kept the figure secret and instead offered to repay just $25.4 million which it branded a step towards reconciliation, a leaked cabinet document has revealed.

The 1999 cabinet submission, obtained by NIT, also reveals the government's real motives in engaging a prominent Aboriginal organisation to put the government's offer to Indigenous Queenslanders - it was to ensure widespread publicity for the government's offer and, in the process, make it impossible for future under-award wage claims to succeed in court.

"This... will finalise the issue, because the widespread community publicity will make it difficult for future claimants to bring claims out of time," the document reveals.

From the 1800s, Aboriginals who worked for the Queensland government were routinely paid less than half the wage paid to white workers.

The practice, while immoral, wasn't illegal until the federal government introduced the Racial Discrimination Act in 1975.

But the then Queensland Premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, ignored the new laws and continued to pay under-award wages to black workers until 1986.

A Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) hearing in 1996 found six Palm Islander workers had been illegally discriminated against, and awarded them each $7,000 for 'hurt and humiliation'.

By the time Peter Beattie came to office in 1998, almost 400 workers had filed a claim with HREOC.

The 1999 cabinet submission - prepared for Indigenous affairs minister, Judy Spence - estimated there were now 3,500 potential claimants and noted that if challenged in court, the government could only rely on a "technical legal argument".

It sought to "... develop a process to deal with claims by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people relating to the non-payment of award wages by the Queensland Government...".

Cabinet accepted a recommendation in the submission to establish an "administrative claims process" run in partnership between the state government and FAIRA (the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action, a well-respected Brisbane-based Aboriginal organisation).

In June, 1999 the government formally offered affected workers $7,000 each, which Ms Spence argued would "recognise the Government is committed to providing wage justice to Aboriginal workers" and was in line with the "Government policy objective of Reconciliation."

But what Ms Spence and Premier Peter Beattie didn't tell the public - or FAIRA - was that the government's own research showed the average liability was around $20,250.

The submission shows that both the Beattie government and the previous Borbidge government repaid substantially less than they knew was owed to black workers.

- In December 1997, a Palm Island worker who alleged under-award wage payments between 1978 and 1990 was paid $4,000 as settlement, even though the Borbidge government's research showed he was owed at least $15,500, without taking into account any damages

- In April 1997, the Borbidge government paid $7,000 to the six Palm Island workers, despite research showing the average amount owed not including damages was $13,000, the lowest amount $8,500 and the highest $21,000, without taking into account damages

- In November 1998, the Beattie government offered 14 Palm Island workers $7,000 each, despite its research showing the average entitlement was $13,100 and the highest $27,500, without damages.

- In 1999, the Beattie government made a blanket offer of $7,000 to more than 3,500 claimants, despite it's own research showing the average liability to be $20,250, including damages.

The latter offer was described in Parliament on June 9, 1999 by Ms Spence as a way of "smoothing the path to reconciliation".

Ms Spence told parliament that the figure of $7,000 was based on the 1996 finding by HREOC, which "... was compensation for racial discrimination, not an attempt to deliver the precise back-pay owing to individual claimants".

But in the submission, Ms Spence recommended "complainants [be] paid an amount of money to represent compensation for lost wages and damages for hurt feelings and humiliation suffered as a result of the discrimination".

When it came time for workers to sign up for the offer, the government forced claimants to take the money as full and final settlement.

But as an additional back-up, FAIRA was engaged to help undermine the success of any future claims.

Under the heading 'Advantages', the cabinet submission states: "Partnership with FAIRA provides the best means of wide community access to the process because it ensures that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities will have confidence in it.

"The [Government] cannot be assured of engendering this confidence because of the similar process if began and abandoned in 1994-1995.

"This breadth of access will finalise the issue, because the widespread community publicity will make it difficult for future claimants to bring claims out of time."

Under statute of limitation laws, you cannot commence a court action 12 years after you should reasonably have known you were entitled to a claim.

The cabinet submission also recommended that $7,000 should be offered to claimants "regardless of length of service" and that families of deceased claimants should be excluded from any claim.

The submission also reveals that of the half a million dollars spent by government on the issue up until 1999, only $151,000 had actually been paid to claimants - $281,914.64 was spent on government lawyers.

Source: National Indigenous Times

Further information: stolen wages issues page - includes news index and external links