From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 15 March

In this materialistic world, where success or failure is measured by an accumulation and public display of wealth, it begs the question: ‘What is one person’s labour worth?’

IT was not so long ago that to be a millionaire was exceptional, and few were members of that most elite club (today it is the billionaires’ club); however, it was not something to which everyone aspired. Most employees were reasonably content with a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. Employers were less inclined to underpay their staff. The wages-and-entitlement-reducing casualisation of the workforce, and which is not necessarily for the better, has transformed, irrevocably, the fundamental employment ethos. Today, the aggregate is decidedly imbalanced in favour of the employer. Recently, Woolworths issued a mea culpa for an underpayment of some staff which dates back to 2010 and may involve an amount of up to $300 million in wages and entitlements. Individual amounts totalling $100,000 have been mentioned. Such a large sum might reasonably have represented a capacity to enter the housing market in less rigorous times. The total sum is mindboggling and it is risible to blame an inadequate office system for the anomaly. Computer says ‘no’ is an insupportable and unacceptable explanation which deserves irate public opprobrium, and stern legal judgement. Try being 50 cents short at the Woolworth’s check-out and see what happens. Curiously, one never hears of an employee overpayment of such magnitude, and encompassing such a time span.

As an observation, and not a criticism, the discrepancy between the salaries and incentives paid to executive management, and the wages paid to the coalface worker, is disparate, by any fair and reasonable fiscal standard.

It is hard to envisage any context whereby someone managing a section of the fast food industry could earn in excess of $35 million in one financial year; the approximate $700,000 a week amounts to 435 times the full-time average wage, and might be considered an obscene amount of money, regardless of ‘result for effort’. It is fast-food – we are not talking Mensa.

Australia Post revealed a former chief executive was paid, following his resignation amid political and community uproar about the total of his salary and entitlements, a departing total of $10.8 million. Australia Post has, and does, respond defensively to written criticism of any of its services, or lack thereof. It would be difficult to successfully prosecute the argument of greater efficiency under highly paid CEOs compared to the modest salary paid to the former post masters general in times past. While it is only one minor example, it is part of the cumulative total, and symptomatic of, the consumer dissatisfaction which has enveloped the postal service. A colleague was asked by an Australia Post representative, while posting a parcel to Noosa Heads, “Is that in Australia?”

To disclose the exact figures would be an unforgiveable breach of confidentiality, but many people would be staggered at the amount of money paid to some television, theatre, and film actors.

It has been argued by experts, that many of our most confronting psychological societal problems stem from an persistent lack of money, and a distinct sense of exclusion from mainstream activity and achievability. The not-for-profit, Positive Money, based in London, wrote, “The past hundred years have brought us unprecedented development, especially through ever-evolving technology. In consequence, never in history have so many people lived so well. Yet our society, and humanity as a whole, are facing huge problems. Since the 1980s, lower and middle incomes have barely risen, despite the fact that technology and productivity have continued to develop. The benefits of this development are going mostly to corporations, and to the highest income groups, leading to an increasingly large and still growing gap between rich and poor. Especially after the 2008 crisis, persistent unemployment, and declining livelihoods, are leading to impoverishment, with major social and psychological consequences. On top of that, people are faced with higher costs of, and decreased access to, public services such as health care and education.”

The question remains: What is one person’s labour worth?

Roland can be heard on RADIO 3BA, every Monday morning, 10.45, where gets paid a pro rata living wage. You can contact him via [email protected].