Unions make 40 per cent pay rise demand for North East Link
In an extraordinary cash grab, unions have demanded that construction companies bidding to build the $16 billion North East Link offer 40 per cent pay rises across the life of the project.
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Construction companies bidding to build the $16 billion North East Link have been hit with union demands for 40 per cent pay rises across the life of the project.
The extraordinary cash grab — as the nation’s economy reels from the coronavirus shutdowns — is detailed in a secret memorandum approved earlier this week and obtained by the Herald Sun.
The bosses of the CFMMEU and its allies in the electrical and plumbing unions presented the document to the consortiums bidding to build the link, demanding wage increases of 4 per cent or 5 per cent every year between 2021 and 2028.
The unions have also demanded that in addition to their normal hourly rate every worker on the project get a site allowance of $9.95 an hour, rising to $11.55 by 2028.
The agreement would replicate the union bonanza on the West Gate Tunnel, in which entry-level workers on a basic 36-hour week earn $110,000 a year and $195,000 if they work an industry standard 56-hour week.
The State Government has short-listed three consortiums — OneLink, Spark and ViaNova — to build the link between the Eastern Freeway in Bulleen and the M80 Ring Road in Greensborough.
The contract is due to be signed this year and major work is to begin next year.
The Herald Sun has obtained a copy of the “North East Link Industrial Relations Guidance Document” which was signed this week by Victorian Trades Hall secretary Luke Hilakari, CFMMEU boss John Setka and the ETU’s Troy Gray and PPTEU’s Earl Setches.
The document says it was the result of discussions between Trades Hall, unions and the government’s North East Link Project office and is based on “a shared understanding of the typical key terms that would be expected for the Project, taking into account industry standards and conditions applying for projects of a similar size”.
The negotiations were designed to avoid the fights between unions that dogged the West Gate Tunnel project. But in a sign the project is likely to be hit with the same sort of ugly dispute that has marred that project, the CFMMEU’s rival union, the AWU, has rejected the agreement because it says it isn’t good enough.
The area at the bottom of the document meant to be signed by AWU boss Ben Davis was left blank.
In a statement to his members and delegates, Mr Davis said he had refused to sign the deal because it did not include a demand that “All shift work would be paid at 200 per cent” for workers involved in tunnelling.
Instead, while proposing a 100 per cent loading on night shift tunnelling work, it says that “No shift loading would be applicable to day work Monday to Friday”.
After discussions with his tunnelling delegates, Mr Davis said they had agreed “that to sign such a document would have a negative effect on our members. Reducing their current conditions by almost $400 per week”.
If the unions’ proposals were implemented they would apply to all workers on the project, which would put it at odds with the national building code, which bans enterprise agreements or de facto enterprise agreements that dictate all workers on a project must be employed under the same terms and conditions regardless of who is employing them.
Federal Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter said that for too long industrial relations had been “characterised by adversarial, take-it or leave-it approaches to forcing outcomes in agreements”.
North East Link chief executive Duncan Elliot said: “We will continue to work with all stakeholders, including unions, to ensure the bidders have the information they need to deliver this vital project – that will create 10,000 jobs and give local roads back to local people.”
A government spokeswoman said: “North East Link is working productively with unions to provide guidance to bidders.
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