falling through the safety net: minimum entitlements legislation for aboriginal ... › au ›...

Falling Through the Safety Net: Minimum Entitlements Legislation for Aboriginal

Workers in the Queensland Pastoral Industry1919-1968

Loretta de Plevitz

The "Protected11 Queensland Aboriginal Worker

Exploitation of other races is part of the white labour history of Queensland, but the nineteenth century view that development of the tropics required only a steady supply of cheap (preferably free) "coloured"' labour was shattered by the unsuccessful strikes and depression of the 1890s. White workers feared their skills would be permanently replaced by overseas labour. Federation saw the White Australia Policy manifesting itself in the first Acts of the new Parliament which deported Pacific Islanders1 md restricted non-white immigration by selectively subjecting immigrants to a dictation test of 50 words in any European language.2

Another source of non-white labour commended itself to Queensland pastoralists: the Aborigines. Since the 1860s Aboriginal workers had supported the Queensland pastoral industry by their often unpaid labour.3 A hundred years later more than an eighth of the entire Aboriginal population of Queensland was working in the industry, the largest employer of

1 Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 (Cth).

2 Immigration Restriction Act 1901 (Cth).

3 D May, From Bush to Station: Aboriginal Labour in the North Queensland Pastoral Industry, 18611897 History Department, James Cook University, Townsville, 1983.

1

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY (1997) 13

Aboriginal labour in the State.4 More than half of these workers were "under the Act", their private and working lives ruled by the Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act 1939 (Qld).

In 1897 the Queensland Parliament had passed the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act,5 drafted with the humanitarian object of saving Aborigines from extinction by removing them to reserves away from the pernicious influence of Europeans and Chinese. The Act applied to "aboriginal [sic] inhabitants" of Queensland, and was later extended to Aboriginal natives of other states and territories who were resident in Queensland. Additionally, certain persons were deemed by the Act to be "Aboriginal": these included a "half-caste" person who was living with an Aboriginal person as wife or husband, or who habitually lived or associated with Aborigines, "half-castes" the Minister did not believe had the intelligence to handle their own affairs, and minors. A "half-caste" was defined as a person being the offspring of an Aboriginal mother and other than Aboriginal father.6 The offspring of an Aboriginal father and a nonAboriginal mother, any Aboriginal or half-caste person lawfully married to and residing with a non-Aboriginal person, or a person who had obtained a certificate of exemption under the Act7 were not caught by the Protection Acts.

The Acts created two categories of Aboriginal persons in Queensland: one which was subject to the general laws of Queensland, and the other protected by the Chief Protector of Aborigines, a sort of legislative amicus curiae,8 and his local delegates, usually policemen. Which category a person belonged to

4 Trades and Labour Council of Queensland. [C. 143/64] Submissions to the Queensland State Government for Equality of Wages and Working Conditions for Aborigines in the Pastoral Industry, Brisbane, 6 July 1964.

5 The Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 (Qld), Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Amendment Act 1901 (Qld), Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act 1939 (Qld), and the Aborigines’ and Torres Strait Islanders’ Affairs Act 1965 (Qld) will be collectively referred to in this paper as the Protection Acts.

6 S 4 Protection Act 1897.


8 The post had precedents for example in the West Indian Protectors of Slaves and later the Protector of Immigrants in Mauritius.

2

FALLING THROUGH THE SAFETY NET

was not always clear: a survey in 1965 showed that imany Aboriginal people in Queensland did not know their status.9

The confusion was compounded by uncertainty about whether Aboriginal workers were under the jurisdiction of the industrial laws of Queensland: between 1912 and 1916 and again between 1929 and 1932 they were excluded from the definition of "employee", and thus from the jurisdiction of the Industrial Board and Industrial Court.10 Well-meaning persons believed Aboriginal industrial concerns would be adequately protected by the Queensland government. Thus in 1916 MacNaughton J, in finding the Industrial Court had no jurisdiction to set a minimum wage for Aboriginal sugar workers, was able to confidently state:

No injury will be done to aboriginals [sic] by this state of affairs, as their interests are fully looked after by the Protector of Aboriginals in the various parts of the State.11 12

After 1932 all Aboriginal workers were covered by tlhe Queensland industrial legislation unless they had been specifically excluded by an award or they worked for the Queensland government on a reserve,. This was not generally known: as the Full Court of the Industrial Court cf Queensland noted ten years later in relation to an exploited meatworker:

The employee was the son of a half-caste aborig inal [sic] mother and a full-blooded aboriginal father. He was a subject of the protective provisions of "The Aboriginals Proteclidn Act of 1939" but of course, nothing in that Act deprived him of his right to wages for work done under an award of this Court. Neither this award nor the Industrial Arbitration Acts exempt persons subject to the Aboriginals Protection Actn

9 H Smith, H E Biddle and C Cornwell, "Social Survey of Personis of Aborigine and Torres Strait Island Descent Residing in Brisbane, Queensland 1965-66" (Progress Report) Department of Social Studies University of Queensland in The Remote Aborigines: Aboriginal Policy and Practice - Volume III, C D Rowley, ANU, Canberra, 1971, Chapter 11.

10 S 3 Industrial Peace Act (Qld) 1912; s 4 Industrial Arbitration Act 1916 (Qld); s 5 Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1929 (Qld); s 5 Industrial Arbitration Act 1932 (Qld).

11 In the Matter of The Industrial Peace Act of 1912 (1916) 1 Queensland Industrial Gazette 354 at 355.

12 AMIUE (Qld Branch) v Cameron (1942) 27 QIG 40.

3


The McCawley Award

Aboriginal people had been working on cattle stations for a half a century when the Queensland-registered Australian Workers’ Union of Employees took advantage of the high prices for cattle and the shortage of labour at the end of the First World War to apply for a state award to cover the pastoral industry. McCawley J13 President of the Queensland Court of Industrial Arbitration was persuaded to hand down an award14 with better wages and conditions than had been granted under the Federal pastoral award which covered the Northern Territory. This Award, later known as the "McCawley Award", excluded Aboriginal people under the Protection Act from coverage.15

This left the field open for the wholesale use of cheap Aboriginal labour, so to protect their members the AWU pressured the Queensland Labor government to set competitive wages and conditions for Aboriginal pastoral workers. In 1919 the government passed Regulations to the Protection Act16 which automatically incorporated prescribed minimum entitlements into all Aboriginal pastoral industry employment contracts for the next half century.

The 1919 Regulations

The Protection Acts gave the Chief Protector and the local protectors the role of negotiating the employment contracts of all Aboriginal workers "under the Act".17 No-one apparently perceived a conflict of interest between being a "protector" of employees and a policeman who in country areas was usually the social confidante, equal and friend of the station owner or manager.

13 McCawley J’s appointment to the Queensland Supreme Court was later the subject of a constitutional challenge by his fellow-judges: McCawley v The King [1920] AC 691. One wonders if there were some connection between his generous attitude to the workers and the animosity he engendered in his brother judges.

14 In the Matter of the Industrial Arbitration Act of 1916 and the AWUE (Qld) (1918) 3 QIG 757.

15 Clause 22 of the Station Hands Award.

16 Regulations under the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Acts 1897-1901 CXII Queensland Government Gazette 6 June 1919 p 1579 (the "1919 Regulations").

17 Sections 12, 13 and 15 of Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 (Qld).

4

FALLING THROUGH THE SAFETY INET

Regulation Conditions

The conditions of work coming soon after the forced repatriation of the Pacific Islanders in the first decade of the century bore remarkable similarities to the agreements under which Pacific Islanders had been "engaged"18 to work the Queensland sugar fields: a set period of engagement of 12 months,19 return to the point of engagement, the worker to work and live as a single man,20 no sick pay, one week’s paid holiday only after two years’ service21 (difficult to achieve on one year contracts), and accommodation, clothing and a limited list of specified rations to be provided by the employer.

Regulation wages

The favourable wages in the Station Hands ’ Award meant that the Regulation wages provided minimum rates of pay which were three-quarters of drovers’ and station hands’ award wages and half as much again as the award rate for cooks.22 At a time when Aboriginal workers in other states and the Northern Territory had no minimum wage nor even a requirement that they be paid in cash, the Queensland Regulations rates appeared enlightened and were relied on as a model for 50 years.23

Nevertheless the perceived superiority of the whites was evident in the Regulations wage rates: an Aboriginal Head Stockman supervising a mob of workers which included white employees was to be paid at "McCawley award rates" whereas an Aboriginal Head Stockman in charge of Aboriginal stockmen only was paid Regulations rates.24 The minimum wage for Aboriginal cooks, both male and female, depended1 on whether they were cooking for "European" or "Aboriginal" employees: cooking for white employees attracted 41% more than cooking for Aboriginal workers.25

18 Under The Pacific Island Labourers Act 1880 (Qld).

19 1919 Regulations clause 7.

20 Above, n 19, clause 4(xiii) though there was provision for a married man to be accompanied by his wife.

21 Above, n 19, clause 5(v).

22 See Tables 1 and 2.

23 For example by the Commonwealth Department of the Interior Notes of a Conference of Commonwealth and State Aboriginal Welfare Authorities Canberra., 3 and 4 February 1948 cited in Rowley, Chapter 11

24 1919 Regulations clause 1(e).

25 See Table 2.

5


Because of what McCawley J had described as a "tendency to employ youths at the lower wage in order to displace adults",26 the Station Hands’ Award limited the number of youths to be employed, though it did allow for "slow workers", said to be "aged or infirm",27 to be paid at under-award wages. Below Regulation rates were dependent on the age of the worker: Aboriginal men over 40 were to be paid 25% less than the adult wage "if active", and half the adult wage "if not active".28 Young men under 18 were paid according to whether they had had "training": "untrained" youths were paid a quarter of the adult male Regulation wage. There was no statutory limit on the number of "youths" who could be employed. Where no birth certificates were available and no union to check, men and women could be called untrained youths or inactive 40 year olds to justify paying them at less than Regulation rates.

Disposition of wages

In one major respect the contract of service for the Aboriginal worker was worse, if it were possible, than that of the Pacific Islander. The Islanders had to be paid in cash at the end of their contract. The Aboriginal workers never saw the greater part of their wages. First, income tax was deducted from the gross wage. Then an additional levy of 5% for single men and 2.5% for married men was paid to the Chief Protector for a "fund for relief of indigent natives".29 The employer was permitted to retain an amount to be paid to the employee as "pocket money"30 and the net wage was then paid into a trust account held by the local protector in the worker’s name. The protector was to spend the wages "solely on behalf of the aboriginal or female halfcaste to whom they were due".31 Fraud by the protectors was rife.32 Using the pocket money and food and clothing provided by the employer the workers fulfilled their statutory obligation33 to support their families; an obligation which, during the Depression, was used to deny workers’ families

26 (1918) 3 QIG 757 at 758.

27 Clause 5 of the Station Hands Award.28 1919 Regulations clause 1(a)

29 1919 Regulations clause 1(1). Under s 26(4) Protection Act Amendment Act 1934 (Qld) this became a fund for general Aboriginal welfare, later called the Welfare Fund.

30 1919 Regulations clause l(k).

31 Section 12(2) Protection Act 1901 (Qld).

32 See The Consultancy Bureau. Final Report: Investigations of the Aboriginal Welfare Fund and the Aboriginal Accounts The Consultancy Bureau, Brisbane 1991 (the "Consultancy Report").

33 1919 Regulations clause 1(1).

6


relief from the Indigent Fund until it was proved it was beyond the worker’s means to provide for them.34 The moneys in the Welfare Fund and in the workers’ compulsory savings accounts were freely lused by government for its own purposes one of which was to provide a welfare system funded solely by the fruits of the labour of the group for whom the welfare was intended.35

The Dual System in Practice

Tables 1, 2 and 3 [see pages 13, 14, 15] show that even if there were any semblance of parity between Award and Regulation wages and conditions in 1919 this was eroded over time. During the 1930s Depression both Award and Regulation wage rates were reduced and the Regulation minimum conditions of work (which had not changed since 1919) were deleted altogether. Whereas experienced drovers, a number o f whom were Aboriginal women,36 were in demand and could maintain comparatively reasonable wage levels, female domestic servants, for whom there was no benchmark award until 1945, were the poorest paid and suffered the worst employment conditions.

By the end of the Second World War the shortage of labour was so acute the Queensland government was obliged to improve tthe conditions of work: hours of work under the Regulations became the same as those in the Award, the qualifying period for the one week’s annual leave on full pay was reduced to one year’s continuous service with pro rata entitlement after 6 months, and the employer was obliged to provide facilities for the employee’s school-aged children to attend school.37

Despite the post-war boom and low unemployment Tables 1 and 2 show that by 1961 Regulation wages on the average had fallen to about half the Award. During the 1950s and 1960s basic wage increases either had not been passed on or were only partially passed on to the Aboriginal worker. As for the better working conditions gained at the end of the war, these remained

34 Regulation 1(1) CXXXV Queensland Government Gazette of 11 October 1930, p 1390.

35 The Consultancy Report Attachment 1.2: letter of 30 June 1941 from the Director of Native Affairs to the Under Secretary of Health and Home Affairs "... the ablebodied earner in the country should make reasonable contribution towards the relief of the indigents of his own race ..." .

36 See for example McGrath, A ’Born in the Cattle’: Aborigines in. Cattle Country Allen & Unwin Sydney 1987.

37 CLXIV QGG of 23 April 1945 p 1063.

7


unaltered for twenty years.38 The efforts of civil rights organisations, concerned individuals and the Communist Party of Australia to improve the conditions of Aboriginal people were largely ignored or derided by the general population and the government. In the boom times of the post-war period the Aboriginal pastoral workers became a forgotten race.

Falling through the safety net

The pastoral workers’ wages and conditions fell behind the Award rates for four reasons. First, there was no real alternative work available. As all "protected” Aboriginal people in Queensland had to live on the reserves and it was impossible to leave without a permit there was no free labour market in which workers under the Act could sell their labour. Those left behind on the reserve worked for the Queensland government for 32 hours a week for primitive housing and keep only; hours worked above that were paid in 1958, for example, at a rate of about one pound a week. Even with below Award rates Aboriginal pastoral workers still consistently earned 10 times more than did workers on the reserves.39

Second, the worker was outside the arbitration system, bound under an individual contract of employment whose terms and conditions were both negotiated and enforced by the protector. The Act precluded any conditions or wages other than those set either by the Regulations or through the exercise of the local protector’s discretionary power. He had power to negotiate with the employer, or cancel the agreement;40 he had the right to claim an employee be paid at the award rate or at a higher than prescribed rate if he were satisfied the ability, intelligence and experience of the Aboriginal worker warranted it.41 From 1939 the Director of Native Affairs had the power to negotiate lower rates of pay for those workers not considered capable of earning the prescribed rate.42

Third, there were no reasonable means by which a worker could improve his or her conditions or even complain of them. Inspectors were appointed to inspect the employees’ working and living conditions and to hear any

38 See Table 3.

39 Consultancy Report pp 13-15.

40 Eg the protector could cancel any agreement for a female domestic servant where the employee was not being properly treated, cared for or controlled: 1919 Regulations clause 6 (xvi).

41 1919 Regulations clause 1(1).

42 S 14(5) Protection Act 1939.

8

FALLING THROUGH THE SAFETY 1NET

complaints, but the Chief Protector’s decision was final in the event of any dispute between inspector and employer.43 In 1934 a procedure was established whereby the worker him or herself could imake a direct complaint of ill-treatment or breach of employment conditions ito the local protector. If the employee was found "at fault" he or she wais ordered to return to work.44 The worker could not under any circumstances be discharged from the contract without the consent of the local protector.45 Even if the parties failed to carry out their obligations under the contract the worker could not quit or be fired because the contract could only be determined by or with the local protector’s consent.46 Even if the employee found alternative employment at a better rate of pay the new employer would be committing an offence by "removing" an Aboriginal worker from employment without the protector’s authority.47 The strikes and walk-offfs used in the Northern Territory and WA in the mid-1960s were difficult to effect where an employee who "absconded" (usually to attend a religious ceremony) risked at the very least being forced back to work with his or her due wages and pocket money forfeited to the Welfare Fund.48

Fourth, the union movement was generally uninterested in Aboriginal workers; any interest in coloured workers was only enlivened when competition for jobs was in issue. For example, dluring the Depression a clause was inserted in the Station Hands' Award giving preference to "competent white workers over coloured aliens".49 In 1928 Dethbridge CJ of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration suggested that the application by the Northern Australian Workers Union to bring Aboriginal workers under the Federal Pastoral Award may have been motivated "so as to make work for white employees"50 because employers would put Aboriginal workers off rather than pay them equal wages. In a 1942 employer’s appeal against convictions for working an Aboriginal meatworker excessive hours, 7 days a week for one third of the award wage

43 1919 Regulations clauses 12 and 13.

44 S 15(2) Protection Act 1934.

45 1919 Regulations clause 2(x).

46 Above, n 45, Memorandum of Agreement.


48 1919 Regulations clause 2(xvii).

49 Clause 7 Station Hands Award 18(2) QIG of 24 June 1933, p 180.

50 Northern Australian Workers Union v Northern Territory Pastoral Lessees Association (1928) 26 CAR 607 at 623.

9


and for breach of the union membership preference clause,51 the Full Bench of the Queensland Industrial Court suggested the Australasian Meat Industry Union of Employees organiser would have been better employed trying to enlist the Aboriginal worker as a member rather than merely telling the employer to pay him the full wage or dismiss him.

Unions arise!...................................................................................

Nevertheless, changing social conditions during the Second World War brought an awareness of the continuing exploitation of Aboriginal workers. In 1944 the AWU made another application to bring Aboriginal workers under the Federal Award on the basis they performed responsible and often supervisory duties.52 But judicial attitudes had not caught up with the social conscience: the Court refused the application on the grounds that:

the receipt of award wages and conditions would [only] add to the bewilderment of the ’full blood’ concerning the ways and customs of the ’whites’...it would be inadvisable and even cruel to pay them for the work they can do at the wage standards found to be appropriate for civilised ’whites’.53

Popular opinion gradually overruled the Court. In 1963 the ACTU Congress called for payment at award rates and direct payment of wages to Aboriginal workers. In July 1964 the Queensland Trades and Labour Council widely circulated a document which unfavourably compared the Regulations with the Award and later that year the Queensland-registered Australian Workers’ Union of Employees applied to include Aboriginal workers in the Station Hands' Award, the last remaining state award to exclude Aboriginal workers.54

Under the Award at last

The hearing of the Queensland application was delayed to await the result of the test case by the Northern Australian Workers’ Union to include Northern Territory Aboriginal workers in the Federal Award. Years of negotiation and argument led up to the decisions. If the inevitable had to happen and

51 AMIUE (Qld Branch) v Cameron (1942) 27 QIC 40.

52 Australian Workers Union v EA Abbey and Others (1944) 53 CAR 212.

53 Above, n 52, per Kelly J at 214-215.

54 Though workers on the reserves were not covered by any industrial legislation

10

FALLING THROUGH THE SAFETY 1NET

Aboriginal pastoral workers brought under the A wardis, the employers needed a strategy for keeping their cheap skilled labour. Botth the State and Federal pastoral awards already included a slow workers’ clause which allowed a lower rate to be paid, with the consent of the union, t(0 an employee who was unable to earn the minimum prescribed wage. John Kerr,55 the pastoralists’ counsel before the Federal Commission, argued for thie retention of the clause not on racial grounds but for "sociological" anid "scientific" reasons: Aboriginal workers had a different "attitude" and wer e therefore less efficient than their white workmates. The Queensland United Graziers had a less sophisticated approach: they would agree to the inclusion of Aboriginal workers in the State Award so long as the slow workers’ rates were set by an Industrial Magistrate or a Crown appointee rather than the union.

By 1968 the Federal56 and State57 Awards covered Aboriginal workers though both Awards retained the slow workers’ clause. Commissioner Pont of the Queensland Commission reluctantly admitted that had been necessary to retain jobs for Aboriginal workers in the industry. General application of the Award would have seen the wholesale sacking of the Aboriginal workforce.

The Commissioner was clearly disappointed the much-vaunted new Protection Act, the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders Affairs Act 1965 (Qld), still allowed wages and conditions of reserve vyorkers (now designated "assisted" persons) to be fixed by Regulation rather than by the Industrial Commission. The reserve wages, as before, did! not go direct to the employees but were paid over to the District Officers or Managers. He said:

I do not intend going into the legal position ... of the Aborigines’ and Torres Strait Islanders’ Regulations of 1966 ais they relate to the wages and conditions of Aborigines under the Station Hands’ Award, but I want to say that there will be many Aborigines who would have thought they would in the future be free, but will still be under somewhat similar restrictions as they have been in the past.58

55 Later Governor General of Australia.

56 In the matter of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904-1965 and of the Cattle Station Industry (Northern Territory Award, 1951 (1966) 113 CAR 651.

^ In the Matter of the Station Hands’ Award (1968) 68 Queensland Government Industrial Gazette 41.

58 Above, n 57, at 42.

11


The pastoral industry was given time to phase in the changes, even so, coverage was by no means immediate. Six months after the commencement of the new Station Hands Award the Minister admitted to the General Secretary of the Trades and Labour Council that 20% of Aboriginal pastoral workers were still not receiving Award rates.59

Could the Aboriginal pastoral worker have achieved wage equality without the AWU application?

A comparison with Western Australia is useful. Using statistics provided by the WA Government, Rowley60 contended in some parts of that state the Aboriginal worker in an open market had achieved the level of the award by 1963-65. He himself acknowledged this wage was an average only: market forces in remote areas produced considerably more than the award while elsewhere workers were still virtually working for keep. In his calculation of the award wage he included the monetary value of "keep": the Western Australian Aboriginal worker had no legislative entitlement to be paid in cash. Additionally, the wages he cited were based on weeks in actual employment with no account taken of the seasonal nature of the cattle industry. There was no paid annual leave. Further, the statistics were skewed by the fact some Aboriginal youths with educational qualifications were able to negotiate higher wages than the general adult Aboriginal wage. The conclusion must be that in a similar market the Queensland pastoral worker would have achieved no more than his or her colleague in Western Australia.

Conclusion

Queensland’s new industrial legislation will allow the Industrial Commission to set minimum wages for employees not under awards. An individual worker can sign a Queensland Workplace Agreement which can operate exclusively of an award or certified agreement. Employees will be assisted in making their individual contracts by the government-employed Employment Advocate. The way is open for two parallel wage-fixing systems: one for workers on individual contracts ostensibly underpinned by the "safety net" of minimum entitlement provisions, the other for those on collective agreements. As the Aboriginal experience in the Queensland

59 Trades and Labour Council of Queensland, [c. 143/64] Letter of 10 December 1968 Minister for Lands to the General Secretary of the Trades and Labour Council .

60 Rowley, Chapter 12.

12


pastoral industry shows, those who have no bargaining power will slip through the safety net unless they have the support of the union movement.

Table 1: Drovers’ and Station Hands’ Wages - 1919-1966(All monetary sums have been converted to dollars for ease of reference)

YearAward (District

Allowances additional)Regulations (No

District Allowance)Regulations as

% of Award

Adult Drover when Travelling with Stock

1919 $8.00 $6.00 75%193361 $7.40 $3.00 40%194562 $10.20 $4.00 39%195063 $16.89 $10.75 63%196164 $33.95 $20.00 59%196665 $39.04 $25.00 64%

Adult General Station Hand

1919 $5.30 $4.00 75%1933 $4.40 $2.60 59%1945 $7.20 $3.00 41%1950 $12.85 $9.75 76%1961 $29.75 $16.50 55%1966 $34.45 $21.00 61%

61 Award: 18 QIG of 24 June 1933, p 190 Regulations: CXXXV QGG of 11 October 1930, p 1390.

62 Award: 30 QIG of 30 June 1945, p 307 Regulations: CLXIV QGG of 23 April 1945, p 1073.

63 Award: 35 QIG of 20 July 1950, p 807 Regulations: CCXIV QGG of 23 December 1950, p 2950.

64 Award: XLVII QGIG of 29 June 1961, p 828 Regulations: CCVIII QGG of 23 December 1961, p 1335.

65 Award: LXII QGIG of 11 June 1966, p 399 Regulations: CCXXIII QGG of 24 December 1966, p 1613.

13


Table 2 : Cooks’ and Domestic Servants’ Wages - 1919-1966

Year Award

Regulations cooking for Europeans

(cooking for Aboriginals)

Regulations as% of

Award

Cook for an Average of 13-30 persons

1919 $4.00 $6.00 ($3.50) 150%1933 $5.40 $2.25 ($1.88) (87%)1945 $5.24 $2.00 ($1.50) 41% (34%)1950 $10.27 $7.25 ($6.25) 38% (28%)1961 $24.37 $12.50 ($11.25) 70% (61%)1966 $28.21 $16.75 51% (46%)

59%

Domestic Servant over 19

1919 not covered by Award $1.20 _

1933 not covered by Award Regulations suspended -194566 $3.80 $2.00 52%1950 $8.69 $5.50 63%1961 $22.08 $9.50 43%1966 $25.63 $11.00 43%

Table 3 : A Comparison of Working Conditions 1919 and 1964

ConditionRegulations

1919

Regulations1964 [unchanged

since1945]

Award1964

Paid Annual Leave

1 week after 2 years’ service

1 week after 1 year’s service. Pro-rata after 6 months’ service.

3 weeks. Prorata 1/16 of pay for period worked.

Sick Leave No direct entitlement but not to lose wages where sickness oraccident occurred in course of duty.

No directentitlement but not to lose wages where sickness or accident occurred in course of duty.

1 week for each year. Pro-rata for less than 1 year service.

66 Domestic servants first brought under the Award: (1945) 30 QIG 307.

14

FALLING THROUGH THE SAFETY INET

Condition Regulations1919

Regulations1964 [unchanged

since1945]

Award1964

Long Service No provision No provisioni Available after10 years’ service.

Hours of Work 48 40 40

Drovers’, Station Hands’ overtime

Under 6 hours - time off in lieu. Over 6 hours time & Vi. "Necessary" work on Sunday - time & Vi.

Time in excess of6 days a week - time & Vi except for mustering or droving.

Time & Vi for work in excess of ordinary working hours. Sunday - double.

FemaleDomestics’Overtime

No maximum hours but to be allowed time off for recreation and church.

Day off in lieu of Sunday work.

Time & Vi (double forSunday) in excess of working week.

Food and Provisions Supplied

"Food of sufficient quantity and variety" including: bread/flour, fresh meat at least once a week, sugar, tea: total of 12 items.

"Food ofsufficient quantity and variety", toital17 items.

Food to be sound, well- cooked and served to employee. 52 items including eggs, custard powder.

Method of Payment

Into account held by local Protector.Some pocket money to worker.

Into account he‘ld by localProtector. Some pocket money to worker.

Monthly direct to employee.

15

falling through the safety net: minimum entitlements legislation for aboriginal ... › au ›...

Documents