In launching Not so super, for women: Superannuation and women鈥檚 retirement outcomes鈥 by David Hetherington and Warwick Smith on July 20, Australian Services Union (ASU) national secretary David Smith said: 鈥淎ustralia鈥檚 compulsory superannuation system is failing women. According to the latest figures, women are retiring with around half as much superannuation (53%) as men.鈥
superannuation
I can understand Brian Boyd鈥檚 frustration concerning the Superannuation Guarantee Scheme (SGS) in 鈥淪uperannuation: A Generation Betrayed鈥 (麻豆传媒 Weekly #1144 and #1145). 聽The original promise was short on delivery.
He is right to point out the inequity that existed in providing superannuation for workers prior to 1992.
Superannuation should provide a comfortable retirement for the several million workers who signed up to the 1983鈥95 鈥渟uperannuation revolution鈥 by the ACTU and Hawke-Keating Labor governments. But what should be in a super account to provide a comfortable retirement for this 鈥減ioneer鈥 generation?
The historical and current injustices following the establishment of industry superannuation and the subsequent undermining of this important social policy initiative needs to be scrutinised.
Australia's four big banks plus AMP are ripping off the country's workers with huge fees charged on their superannuation investments, a recent study has revealed.
carried out by Rainmaker for Industry Super Australia, a mainly union-backed body, shows that the retail super funds, largely operated by the big banks, absorb about half of all fees charged in the superannuation system, despite holding only 29% of retirement savings.
Commonwealth Bank to repay superannuation
The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has agreed to repay employer superannuation to more than 7000 part-time workers that was not applied to overtime over the past eight years.
The CBA will repay the superannuation to all part-time workers since 2009, including those who have switched to full-time positions or have since left the bank. The average payment is $180 a year.
The CBA maintains it was not breaking the law by only paying superannuation on ordinary hours to part-time staff rather than extra hours or overtime.
For a long time, superannuation was available only to permanent public sector workers and managerial employees in the private sector. So-called 鈥渂lue collar鈥 workers were not so privileged. In the mid-1980s, only about a quarter of these workers had access to superannuation, more often than not following union-led campaigns in targeted industries.
The Forbes Billionaires list released last month included almost two dozen Australians in its ranks. Among them was mining boss Gina Rinehart, who has now become the richest person in Australia with a fortune of $17 billion.
This placed her 36th in the world, but her net wealth was still double that of her nearest fellow Australian billionaire, chief executive of commodities firm Glencore, Ivan Glasenberg.
Also on the list were finance elites, gaming kingpins and several other mining corporation owners.
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