Offshore drill workers win 15.6 pc pay rise

Workers get pay rises of 8.6 per cent and 7 per cent over two years after threatening action against labour hire firm Rigforce.

Offshore drill workers will receive a 15.6 per cent pay increase that includes income protection and higher superannuation rates.

Offshore drill workers have secured annual pay rises of 8.6 per cent and 7 per cent over the next two years after threatening legal industrial action against labour hire firm Rigforce.

The Offshore Alliance, made up of the Australian Workers Union and Maritime Union of Australia, hailed the 15.6 per cent pay deal that includes income protection, higher superannuation rates and a raft of improved allowances.

Brad Gandy, Offshore Alliance spokesman and AWU Western Australia secretary, said the agreement was a “positive outcome for offshore drill crew who, over the past six years, have experienced deteriorating real wages and employment ­conditions”.

Rigforce crew had voted in support of taking protected industrial action.

“We’ve allocated significant organising resources into the offshore drilling sector, which has traditionally been poorly organised and characterised by sub-par agreements, over the past 18 months,” Mr Gandy said.

He said the alliance had also reached an in-principle agreement with the other key offshore drilling labour hire provider, Atlas Professional.

“The two labour hire agreements largely align pay and conditions and create a new level playing field of rates and conditions, which should benefit both the drilling companies and our members,” he said.

Resource sector employers recently warned that the economy would see a significant uptick in industrial action over the next few years, with inflation driving expectation of wage increases in excess of 7 per cent.

More than 120 workers have been taking industrial action at UGL’s Newcastle operations in support of an 18 per cent pay rise over three years, alleging they are paid $7 less an hour than their peers at competing companies.

Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association Steve Knott predicted unions would use new “union-friendly” workplace laws to pursue aggressive wage claims and strike in support of those claims. “This will especially unfold in critical areas of the economy like mining, maritime and construction,” he said.

“Employers who don’t have in-term enterprise agreements locked in, are potentially sailing into a ‘perform storm’ of IR risks.”

CFMEU boss John Setka has said he expected construction workers to take industrial action in pursuit of annual pay rises of at least 5 per cent, claiming he took “pie in the sky” federal budget forecasts of lower inflation “with a grain of salt”.

Annual wages growth is forecast to reach 4 per cent next fin­ancial year, the fastest rate in 15 years, with a ­return to real wages growth tipped for early 2024.