Energy Minister Mark Bailey says he is not involved pay deal

ENERGY Minister Mark Bailey says he had no involvement in a wage agreement that gives the state’s energy workers a larger pay rise than other government staff.

Queensland Energy Minister Mark Bailey says he has had no involvement in a bumper pay deal. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Pele

ENERGY Minister Mark Bailey says he had no involvement in a wage agreement that gives the state’s energy workers a larger pay rise than other government staff.

That’s despite meeting with union members advocating for the bumper pay agreement.

Workers at the state-owned distributor and retailer Energy Queensland will score 3 per cent annual increases to 2021 in a deal that exceeds the Government’s official wage policy of 2.5 per cent.

Mr Bailey, a former member of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), yesterday denied he’d had any involvement in ushering the agreement through, ahead of an election and months before the EBA was due to run out.

“The EBA is handled by Energy Queensland and as a Government-owned corporation they handle that affair,” he said.

“It is a normal part of their operations. It is their decision to make and they made a decision.”

Mr Bailey said he had met with his former union on the EBA, because that was “a normal part of my job”.

“People lobby governments. That’s how our democratic system works and that’s a normal part of my job,” he said.

But he said he’d not taken those lobbying messages to Energy Queensland.

“I’ve had no personal conversations with Energy Queensland about the EBA process, no,” he said.

Mr Bailey said he didn’t know what the additional wage bill would add to the company’s costs and dodged questions about how other government workers would view the fairness of the larger rise.

Asked whether the decision would put upward pressure on energy prices for consumers, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said: “No.”