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View Full Version : CFMEU wages increase was the "price for peace"....



Qld IR Consultant
13-05-2011, 08:48 AM
In what only can be described as a significant win for the CFMEU, the employers currently working on the key Victorian Government project Desalination plant have caved to the threat of Industrial Action with the supposed militant Victorian Branch of the CFMEU, to hand workers unprecedented increases in wages and superannuation entitlements for the next 4 years.

The financial impact on the project is measurable, but the ongoing impacts through the successful "benchmarking" by the CFMEU will now impact employers, and the economy, within the construction industry sector, will be untold.

Employers admitted that they failed to "win" any productivity trade-offs and agreed to the high pay rise rather than face industrial action on multi-million dollar construction projects.

Additionally, employer sources (more than likely workplace delegates) said that the union had been "emboldened" by the agreement. To say that they would now be emboldened would be an understatement.

The CFMEU now has a benchmark agreement for all future bargaining within the construction sector. Employers can now expect an increase in pattern bargaining, increase in union visitations, and a definite increase in industrial unrest within the construction industry.

So my question is simple. What price do you and your business put on peace?