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Aborigines in low-pay compo

By Margaret Wenham

15 March 2007 - AN indigenous group has received compensation from the State Government for being paid under-award wages because of their race.

The six people from the former mission community of Doomadgee in far northwestern Queensland are the second group to secure compensation, following a successful Federal Court test case last year.

That involved seven people from Hope Vale and Wujal Wujal communities being paid about $240,000.

Doomadgee claimants spokesman Les Malezer said the settlement, two weeks ago, should result in payments to individuals of between $7000 and $25,000.

Negotiations were now under way with the Government for a larger group of Doomadgee people to be paid monies owing to them.

"At a rough estimate, there are around 400 people from the former Lutheran, Christian Brethren and Uniting Church missions," Mr Malezer said.

"In addition there are people we have not yet signed up to the process who would also be entitled."

Two of the claimants, Daphne Foster and Eleanor Logan – who are trained childcare workers at Doomadgee Child Care Centre – said the claims had taken eight years to settle.

Ms Foster said she had worked as a cashier in the store at Doomadgee between 1976 and 1980 and then did office work until 1983.

"All that time I was paid under-award wages and this was because I am Aboriginal," she said. "At the time, though, I didn't know – I found out in 1983 when my wages increased.

"The Government, through mediation, has settled my claim, including an amount for hurt and humiliation.

"I don't think it's enough, but at least something has come out of it."

The under-award wages claims are not to be confused with the stolen-wages issue.

Aboriginal people working on the government-funded but church-run missions, which included Doomadgee, Aurukun, Mornington Island, Hope Vale and Wujal Wujal, were paid less than their white counterparts until the mid-1980s, when the state government acknowledged it was in breach of the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act of 1975.

Claims are restricted to that period because no law existed before then which made the paying of lower wages to Aboriginal people illegal.

Ms Foster said she would "put away" the money she received so she could buy presents for friends and family on special occasions.

This was something she had never been able to do.

Source: news.com.au

• FAIRA Aboriginal Corporation
• This is an underaward wages claim not a Stolen Wages case.

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