Queen’s Wharf carpenters to earn $300,000 a year

THE details of a union-brokered pay deal for some tradies working on a multibillion-dollar project in Brisbane’s CBD have been revealed, with some set to earn more a year than a state MP.

CARPENTERS working on Brisbane’s multibillion-dollar Queen’s Wharf project will get up to $288,500 a year to make sure they don’t strike.

The astonishing deal is contained in a confidential Enterprise Bargaining Agreement brokered by the CFMMEU and leaked yesterday to The Courier-Mail.

The wages are three times those earned by Queensland teachers and nurses.

The Courier-Mail can also reveal the workers will get a 5 per cent a year increase in their wages up until the completion of the project in 2022 – taking their salaries beyond $330,000 a year, more than what a Queensland Cabinet Minister earns.

If a carpenter is engaged on shift work and begins ordinary-hours work after 1pm, the 46-hour rate totals $288,500 a year, including super.

A Greenfield Project Agreement has been brokered by the powerful and strike-happy CFMMEU with the Queen’s Wharf consortium – Star Entertainment Group and Chow Tai Fook – as part of a deal to minimise industrial disputation.

These rates do not include on-costs for annual leave, public holidays, personal leave, wet weather, lost time, long service leave, Sunday loadings, WorkCover and payroll tax, which adds 30 per cent on top of the wage.

Artist's impression of Queens Wharf, Brisbane

Opposition industrial relations spokesman Jarrod Bleijie said the EBA was “an obscene wage demand making it uncompetitive to do business in Queensland”.

“(The CFMMEU) own the Government; with Labor in power they always get their way,” he said.

“The wage deals are choking Queensland’s economic development – because of the unions, it is too expensive to invest in Queensland.

“If you don’t agree, they will shut down your site – we have seen this before on government projects (and) it has cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.”

A state MP earns $159,000 a year and a Cabinet Minister pockets $327,000 a year.

The average nurse’s wage is $75,322 a year.

A carpenter not working the nominal 10 hours overtime will still earn $155,700 a year. Workers on Queen’s Wharf will be paid $11 an hour for just turning up to work.

They get $50 a day to travel to the work site even on a rostered day off when you don’t have to travel to work.

The Queen’s Wharf deal is well in excess of the average CFMMEU enterprise bargaining agreement for carpenters.

The deal was brokered by CFMMEU strongman Jade Ingham, who was recently appointed by the Government to the Queensland Building and Construction Board, which regulates building laws.

CFMMEU strongman Jade Ingham brokered the deal. Picture: Mark Calleja

Opposition industrial relations spokesman Jarrod Bleijie. Picture: Justin Brierty

The draft agreement is expected to be completed within weeks but is being circulated now to subcontractors. It will run for four years and includes a provision for a 5 per cent annual wage increase.

Queen’s Wharf, the biggest single private enterprise project in state history, is due to be completed by 2022.

It includes a new casino, 2000-unit residential towers, a Ritz-Carlton hotel, Rosewood hotel, Grand hotel, Dorsett hotel, specialty retail and 50 restaurants.

Star says it will transform the CBD and attract 40,000 people a day.

Federal Court judges have been highly critical of the CFMMEU in the past.

The union has been singled out for its civil disobedience, having been fined in Queensland on 135 occasions between 1999 and 2017.

“The (CFMMEU’s) massive donations to the Labor Party give them unprecedented access to Labor Ministers and appointments to Government boards,” Mr Bleijie said.

“Under Annastacia Palaszczuk, Queensland is the strike capital of Australia – we have more work days lost because of strikes than any other state. Annastacia Palaszczuk should immediately disassociate from the CFMMEU.”

Star Entertainment Group would not comment.