Jockeys on Short Odds

The following opinion piece by AWU National Secretary Bill Shorten was published in the Herald Sun newspaper on November 9, 2006

THIS week, as millions of us have focused on picking a winner in the Melbourne Cup, it's worth sparing a thought for Australia's jockeys.

The popular perception is of a glamorous lifestyle supported by large earnings,

But the reality is very different, particularly for the jockeys who are not among the 10 top earners.

Imagine a job where you are expected to be available for work 363 days a year, keep yourself 20 per cent underweight and suffer at least one body fracture in your career.

Combine that with getting up at 4am for six days a week, travelling more than 160,000km a year, and enduring regular media and public scrutiny.

Industry statistics show that while the track's top earners average $215,000 a year, the next 100 average only $53,000.

From this, they are expected to help fund their own public liability and death and disability insurance.

They are responsible for buying their own safety equipment: vests and helmets, as well as their saddles and boots.

As well as the risk of serious injury or death, they face the prospect of early-onset osteopenia, or loss of bone density.

A study by the Victorian Institute of Sport found that jockeys typically have a bone-density equivalent to that of an 80-year-old woman. They fracture easily.

A LL this for a career that lasts, on average, for only 10 years, with no job security beyond that.

Earnings for Australian jockeys are badly behind those in Japan, the UK, Ireland and Hong Kong and Macau.

For example, the losing fee for an unplaced jockey is $125 in Queensland and $120 in Western Australia.

This compares with $310 in Japan, $219 in Britain and $190 in Hong Kong, $175 in Macau, and $208 in Ireland.

In Australia, the share of the prize pool for place-getting jockeys is 5 per cent; owners receive 85 per cent and trainers 10 per cent.

This is half the allocation for jockeys in Macau. Jockeys in Hong Kong get 9 per cent. In Ireland, jockeys get 8 per cent, and in the UK 7.5 per cent.

Australian jockeys also suffer from a lack of national standards for riding fees, workers' compensation and superannuation. Standards vary significantly from state to state.

Victoria's 180 jockeys have achieved significantly improved benefits through the Victorian Jockeys' Association, supported by the Australian Workers' Union, under a memorandum of understanding with Racing Victoria Ltd.

This provides for losing-ride fees of $145, which are the highest in the country, and an additional-ride subsidy of $60 a day for any meeting where a jockey has three rides or less.

Racing Victoria Ltd also pays jockeys an additional $5 per race in retirement benefits, rising to $10 in 2008-09.

Under the jockeys' industrial agreement, Racing Victoria pays for a welfare officer and a psychologist, who is always available.

It's time we had a debate about creating national conditions for employees in the racing industry.

Why should a jockey in WA earn almost 33 per cent less than one in Victoria?

The AWU has called on racing clubs to adopt the Victorian jockeys' agreement as a minimum industry standard.

Surely this is not unreasonable in a nation that gambles millions of dollars at the track each year, with events attracting record crowds and profits.

And it's not just jockeys who miss out. We need to review how revenue flows to owners, trainers and stablehands.

The AWU is concerned that elements of the racing industry are under pressure because of current revenue distribution.

This has an impact on the viability of the industry outside major racing carnivals.

Totaliser dividends are distributed to racing clubs, and this income is in turn split by clubs between their administration costs and the allocation of stakes prizemoney.

But owners complain they are receiving less prizemoney than five years ago and are spending more to get a horse on the track.

For example, in Victoria on Sunday, October 1, 2006, there were seven races at Sandown, each for $22,000 prizemoney: a total of $154,000.

The same race meeting in 2001 had eight races, each for $25,000: a total of $200,000.

This represents a decline of $46,000 in prizemoney, while the costs of training a horse have risen from $20,000 in 1996 to $30,000 in 2006.

Because owners are finding it hard to pay training bills, some trainers are trying to avoid paying award wages to stablehands, who earn a minimum wage of only $27,000 a year.

It's in the interests of a vibrant racing industry that jockeys, stablehands and others receive their fair share of the industry's success.