Picture: GrainCorp
Grain handlers began rolling one-hour stoppages at sites across north-western NSW today (Tuesday, October 29) for a better wage deal.
The Australian Workers’ Union, which represents the workers, says protected industrial action follows a breakdown in talks with GrainCorp, and supervised by the Fair Work Commission, on Friday.
The union says GrainCorp executives refused to grant an extra 1 per cent (30 cents an hour) wage increase in the third year of a new wage deal.
GrainCorp Head of Corporate Affairs Jess Simons said they returned to Friday’s talks in the hope of reaching agreement but their offer was rejected.
“We put forward an offer of 14% over three years, an increase in the sign-on bonus to $1000 and back pay to July 1, 2024; however, this offer was not accepted,” she says.
The AWU says that in 2021, 2022 and 2023, grain handlers received an annual increase of 2% a year despite inflation rates increasing by 2.86 per cent, 6.59 per cent and 4.10 per cent respectively which spelt a real wage decline of 7.5 per cent.
Callinan says the increase is affordable for GrainCorp.
“… with the GrainCorp CEO earning more than $1m per year in salary plus bonuses, an extra 1% to their workforce is definitely affordable; it would be a rounding error on the GrainCorp balance sheet,” he says.
“We feel this is a fair and generous offer that recognises the value of our people, who sit at the heart of our operations,” Simons says of their offer.
She says the company is working to minimise the impact on their growers.
“Our teams are working to understand the level of impact that any protected industrial action may have and ensuring that harvest activity can continue at our sites,” she says.
“We will be communicating directly with our grower customers to keep them informed …”
“We understand that harvest is a very busy time of the year for farmers, getting the grain off as soon as it is ready and safely stored is their number one priority,” Callinan says.
Simons describes the rolling stoppages as disappointing.
“It’s deeply disappointing that rather than seizing the opportunity to resolve the dispute, the AWU has decided to escalate the process with protected industrial action at the most important time of year for NSW growers and their businesses,” she says.
But Callinan vowed to keep up their campaign despite the frustration at their sites.
“… trucks will be lined up outside GrainCorp sites right across western NSW; everyone is already frustrated with how long it takes to get unloaded at GrainCorp but with the workers on strike there will be headers pulling up everywhere when the chaser bins, mother bins and other on-farm storage is full.
“AWU members are prepared to fight for locked-in, guaranteed wage increases that keep up with inflation,” said Callinan.
Picture: GrainCorp
