Townsville City Council: AWU blast CEO Joe McCabe’s ‘exorbitant salary’

The Australian Workers Union has lashed out at Townsville City Council CEO Joe McCabe’s “exorbitant salary” in an escalating war of words over staff pay.

Australian Workers Union (AWU) Northern Secretary Jim Wilson (front) with Townsville City Council workers before they voted in favour of industrial action on Tuesday.

The Australian Workers Union has lashed out at Townsville City Council CEO Joe McCabe’s “exorbitant salary” in an escalating war of words over staff pay.

“It’s a bit rich for a council CEO who earns more than Australia’s prime minister to be talking about pay deals being in line with ‘community expectations’, especially considering there are three levels of high paid managers beneath him before any workers who deliver services to ratepayers,” AWU Northern District Secretary Jim Wilson said.

“If he wanted the council to meet community expectations, he’d immediately announce he was taking a six figure pay cut, and an immediate restructure of council bloated management structure.”

The AWU represents hundreds of front-line workers who have launched industrial action seeking a 20 per cent pay increase.

The union says the increase pales in significance to the 79 per cent increase in executive-level salaries in the last financial year.

The council is currently offering a $21.78m increase in wages over the next three years, which equates to an average increase of 7.66 per cent in the first year.

Townsville City Council CEO Joe McCabe. Picture: Supplied

Mr McCabe, who has previously defended the proposed pay increases as “fair and reasonable”, was contacted for comment.

Mr Wilson its members struggling to make ends meet working in the heat and rain were “absolutely sick of being lectured on wage restraint by someone on a six figure salary who sits in an air-conditioned office all day”.

He said Townsville residents believed in giving each other a fair go.

“With TCC overseeing bulging executive remuneration, comparatively high rates, and worse worker pay than other North Queensland councils, Townsville locals are telling our members they fully support our industrial action for better pay,” he said.

“This CEO needs to get back to reality and get back to the bargaining table.”

AWU said Mr McCabe was pulling in between $500,000 and $600,000 a year.

It encouraged the CEO to “get off his soapbox and back to the bargaining table, so that a fair deal can be done which pays workers what they deserve”.

Originally published as Townsville City Council: AWU blast CEO Joe McCabe’s ‘exorbitant salary’