Metro staff highlight runaway spending as they seek new deal on pay

Metro Tasmania has increased its spending on lawyers and consultants by around 500 per cent in five years while staff fight for above-CPI wage rises, the Australian Services Union says.

Elizabeth Street bus mall. PIC: MATT THOMPSON

Metro Tasmania has increased its spending on lawyers and consultants by around 500 per cent in five years while staff fight for above-CPI wage rises, the Australian Services Union says.

The union, which covers administrative staff and operational staff at the state-owned bus company, had started negotiations for a new enterprise agreement.

ASU Tasmanian Coordinator Samantha Batchelor said Metro had been able to find lots of money to pay lawyers and consultants, but frontline workers had not been so fortunate.

She said that According to Metro’s annual reports spending on consultants and had increased from $258,000 to $1.47m.

“The disclosed spend on legal firms alone has risen from just over $75,000 to over $500,000 – a dramatic 561 per cent increase from 2018 figures,” she said.

“This exuberant increase in spending comes at a time when bus services are being cancelled due to low wages, causing a recruitment and retention crisis for Metro Tasmania.

Elizabeth Street bus mall. PIC: MATT THOMPSON

“It would seem the priorities of Metro are to double the number of expensive consultants and lawyers instead of supporting their own workers and this has to change,” she said.

“High turnover and vacancies are not isolated to drivers and mechanics – this is also the case for administrative and operational staff.

“If you can’t roster or support the operations of a bus, you can’t keep buses on the road. If you can’t staff the Metro shop or answer the calls, you can’t service the public’s needs.”

Ms Batchelor said improvements in pay and conditions were needed for all workers at Metro to ensure services could be restored.

A Metro spokesman said the company held an initial meeting with the ASU last week about the new enterprise agreement.

“The next meeting is scheduled for 21 March. Regular meetings will be held going forward,” the spokesman said.

“The value of consultancies engaged by Metro requires some context.

“For example, in 2022/23 almost a third of the annual consultancy budget was applied to the statewide integrated ticketing project.”