Pay Dispute: Australian Cricketers Come Out Swinging For Their Union

Several of Australian cricket's biggest names have signalled once again that they will stand with the player's union even if it means being dropped from national duties.

Australia's leading test wicket taker, Mitchell Starc, fellow quick, Pat Cummins and batsmen, Moises Henriques used twitter over the weekend to express their solidarity with the players' union, known as the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA).

Leading batsmen, David Warner, retweeted the messages from the two pacemen to show his support. While Australian skipper Steve Smith reiterated his support for the player union last month when he said, "The playing group are fully supportive of the ACA."

The latest show of player solidarity comes in response to an email sent to all players last week by Cricket Australia boss, James Sutherland, in which he demanded players drop support for the union and agree to his organisation's new pay terms by June 30 or risk being sacked.

The governing body, Cricket Australia, has been locked in a spiteful pay dispute with the players and player's union for six months, with neither side showing signs of budging.

Cricket is big money in Australia generating around $AU380.9 million dollars a year in revenue.

Under a history-making Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between male players and the administrator in 1997, the men were guaranteed around 26% of the revenue generated by the game, but women were not.

Currently the men and women are involved in negotiations with the governing body to further increase the amount of money available to professional players.

The governing body, Cricket Australia, is demanding players sign a new deal that will get rid of the 26% share of revenue, instead giving Cricket Australia control of a player payment pool of $500 million.

One of the key sticking points of the wage tussle is the amount of money available for professional female players.

The union have requested the women's payment pool be increased by a further $AU1.45 million a year. This money would have come out of the men's payment pool, a move which has been endorsed by Australian men's Test Captain, Steve Smith, and leading batsmen, David Warner.

The union have also made the serious claim that there is a major discrepancy between the amount of revenue being generated by the game and what Cricket Australia says is being generated. They claim around $AUD 400 million is missing from the five-year period since the last MoU agreement was signed and have called for an audit of Cricket Australia's finances.

Even a fraction of that would easily lift the women's game into full-paid professionalism.

In response, Cricket Australia claims the terms of where and how the revenue is generated and distributed are clear and that the only money not made available to players is that which they did not directly contribute to - government grants.

Cricket Australia also argues that the two "adjustment ledger" payments totalling more than $80m being made to players this year and next and could be used in areas such as women's pay.

The union have listed several other concerning discrepancies between the way male and female cricket players are treated. Among them, that the national minimum pay for men is $270,000 excluding superannuation, compared to $40,000 including superannuation for women.

That doctors are present at all men's games but not women's. That women who work for Cricket Australia get maternity leave while the players themselves do not. That women were forced to declare whether they were pregnant or not prior to signing a contract. That women only get one year contracts while men can sign multi-year deals. That women are subject to different behavioural standards than male players.

Australia's workplace oversight body, the FairWork Ombudsman has announced a probe into the contract clauses, prompting the chief executive James Sutherland to state that policies relating to "pregnancy, maternity leave and carer support" are all under urgent review.

"We know that we're fighting for our rights as female players and the men are right behind that so we're really happy about that," said NSW and Australian women's fast bowler, Lauren Cheatle.