CFMEU workers offered $15k back pay in Cross River Rail wage dispute

Cross River Rail builder CPB Contractors has offered $2m to CFMEU workers in an effort to end a heated 14-month pay dispute on the state’s biggest project.

CFMEU members picketing a Cross River Rail worksite earlier this year

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Cross River Rail builder CPB Contractors has offered $2m to CFMEU workers in an effort to end a heated 14-month pay dispute on the state’s biggest project.

The Courier-Mail can reveal CPB has offered about 120 workers as much as $15,000 to secure their support for a renewed enterprise bargaining agreement on the $6.3bn Cross River Rail project.

Negotiations for a new EBA were expected to be finalised in January, but repeatedly broke down amid claims the contractor wasn’t doing enough to ensure the safety and conditions of workers.

However, 14 months after EBA talks first started and a lengthy stalemate between the builder and union, CPB Contractors’s offer will be put to a final vote this week.

The CFMEU has demanded CPB enforce a heat policy that would allow workers to stop work if the temperature reaches 35C or 29C and 75 per cent humidity.

It is understood CPB Contractors has not offered any concession to the union on its heat policy demand but has instead offered workers up to $15,000 in back pay and maintained the offer of a 5 per cent pay rise.

The back pay would be dated to October and exclude any days when a worker was engaged in industrial action.

“In a bid to put an end to the ongoing uncertainty and following consultation with workers, CPB Contractors engaged directly with our employees and proposed an updated enterprise agreement package that is fair and reasonable,” a CPB Contractors spokeswoman said.

“The agreement’s conditions prioritise our workers’ wellbeing and job security while also ensuring Cross River Rail can be completed safely.”

A spokesman for the CFMEU said the union would not support the new offer, however its members could still vote for it.

“The CFMEU cannot endorse a substandard agreement that has no employment security for workers, no heat policy and no rights for delegates or health and safety representatives,” he said.

In September CPB’s offer of $5000 to each worker was labelled a “cash bribe” that would trade away worker safety and conditions.

Cross River Rail has been the scene of protests and occasionally violence in the past 12 months as relations between the union, non-union-aligned workers and the major contractor broke down.