John Setka backs 10 per cent pay push
CFMEU Victorian leader says workers need to be compensated for surging cost of living.
CFMEU Victorian leader John Setka has personally backed thousands of construction workers pursuing a 10 per cent wage rise in the first year of a new four-year pay deal to compensate for the higher cost of living.
The imminent claim is being determined through a survey of members who have been asked their position on the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union annual wage claim and whether it should be 5 per cent, 10 per cent, in line with the CPI, or another amount.
Given the inflation rate and spike in the cost of living, the union will consider pursuing a higher increase in the first year of the new agreement and lower increases for the three subsequent years.
Asked whether a 10 per cent claim for the first year would be too high, Mr Setka said: “My personal view is I reckon 10 per cent is not enough, when you look at how everything has gone up. When they say inflation was running at 7.8 per cent, they haven’t accounted for a lot of the stuff that just went through the roof. All your gas bills are coming in now. They’re all expensive. People’s utilities are going up $300 a year.
“Whether 10 per cent is sustainable for every year in, say, a four-year agreement, that’s another story. But people were told by the ex-governor of the Reserve Bank (Philip Lowe) that ‘No worries, interest rates aren’t going to go up (in 2024)’.
“People have mortgaged themselves to the hilt, the Aussie dream of buying their first house, and now everyone’s f..ked. (Interest rates) have substantially gone up. People are losing houses. They can barely live. It’s almost like the working poor. We already get good wages and our members are struggling.”
Asked whether a 10 per cent increase in the first year of the new agreement would be justified, he said: “My personal view is I reckon it would be. We’ve copped it really bad. It’s affected so many people. People are struggling, people are really, really struggling.
“As the cost of everything is going up, overtime is reducing so the capacity to work more hours and earn a bit more overtime is not there … yet the bills are going up, everything is going up.
“It’s almost like I have got to start shitting gold bricks soon just to pay the bills. This is probably the worst I’ve seen it.”
Asked how employers would react to a 10 per cent wage claim, he said “you’d probably have to give them mouth to mouth to resuscitate them. That’s my personal view. My view is for this year to compensate for everything that has happened, I reckon 10 per cent. That’s my personal view. We’ll see what the members say. If they say we’re happy with 7 per cent, that will make it all good, a bit of an increase in redundancy and this or that, then that is what we’ll do.”
The union is also surveying members about their support for “ground-breaking” initiatives including an industry levy to fund 12 to 16 weeks’ parental leave for women, two weeks for men, and IVF leave for members where the treatment failed.
Members are being asked whether they want the union to pursue an increase in their travel allowances to compensate for higher petrol prices as well as storage lockers for scooters and bikes, given fewer employees are driving to work.
The 65-question survey of members closes next week and Mr Setka said there had been “massive engagement”.
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