CFMEU’s generous pay deal under fire

Employers will be required to double weekly payments to a worker entitlement fund and lift super payments to up to 14 per cent under new CFMEU pay deal.

Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter. Picture: AAP

Employers will be required to double weekly payments to a worker entitlement fund and lift superannuation payments to up to 14 per cent under previously undisclosed elements of a new pay deal between John Setka’s Victorian CFMEU and major builders.

The Australian can reveal ­employers will increase payments into the Incolink fund from $80-a -week to $160-a-week over the life of the four-year deal while super payments will jump annually to as much as 14 per cent by 2023, compared to 11 per cent for most other workers.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox on Monday slammed the decision to double the quantum of employer contributions to Incolink, saying it highlighted the urgent need for proposed laws regulating workers benefits to be passed by ­parliament.

“There is a blatant conflict of interest in industrial organisations entering into a pattern agreement that requires ­employer contributions to a worker entitlement fund, when the representatives of those organisations on the board of the fund resolve to transfer millions of dollars a year to their own organisations,” he said. “Surely anyone can see that.”

Attorney-General and Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter said on Monday that while the final form of any agreement was for the parties to settle “it’s important that any payments to worker entitlement funds are transparent”.

“These funds deal with massive amounts of money all of it meant to be strictly applied for the benefit of workers,” Mr Porter said. “There have been many ­examples where large sums have been transferred without ­anything resembling adequate explanation.

“That’s why the Morrison government introduced legislation to protect worker entitlements in such funds. The legislation ­remains before the Senate and remains a priority for the government.”

The increased Incolink and superannuation payments were not mentioned by the Master Builders Victoria last week when it announced the in-principle agreement between the union and several of the state’s major builders.

However, Master Builders highlighted how the annual three per cent wage rises agreed under the deal were “more measured” than previous years when employers agreed to demands by the Victorian CFMEU for annual five per cent pay increases.

Senior industry figures with intimate knowledge of the agreement said the weekly Incolink and superannuation payments would increase progressively until 2023.

The extra superannuation contributions are paid in dollar amounts and translate to as high as 14 per cent for some workers. However, industry sources said most Victorian construction workers would get about 12 per cent by 2023, still above most other workers.

One industry figure described the deal as an “Accord-style agreement that will boost the industry’s social wage credentials”.

But several employer figures, who declined to speak publicly, criticised the doubling of the Incolink payments as “outrageous” and a “huge, unjustified increase”.

A spokesman for Master Builders said: “Incolink was playing an increasingly vital role for both employers and employees, and that is why that part of the agreement was reached.”

The CFMEU has refused to comment, claiming the agreement was “not yet finalised”.