Laundry staff on offshore construction projects in Oz to earn $420K yearly

Melbourne, Mar 25 (ANI): A survey has revealed that laundry hands and cooks employed on offshore construction projects in Australia will potentially earn more than 420,000 dollars a year.

Employers claim the extraordinary rates will have a flow-on impact on mainland resources projects.

According to the Australian, new analysis by the Australian Mines and Metals Association found the most recent wage agreement registered for offshore construction workers contains maximum annual pay packages.

Where a four-week-on, two-week-off rostered employee is concerned, a laundry hand would earn 423,000 dollars, a cook 445,000 dollars, a tradesperson 450,000 dollars, and a barge welder 498,000 dollars.

If the employee works a three-week-on, three-week-off roster for a year, the AMMA said, the maximum remuneration was 317,734 dollars for a laundry hand, 334,408 dollars for a cook, 337,484 dollars for a tradesperson, and 373,701 dollars for a barge welder.

Steve Knott, the association's chief executive, said the pay rates were a "worrying precedent", particularly for Queensland employers competing for a dearth of skilled workers.

"There is a very real risk to resource employers. As offshore rates and allowances flow across to the onshore construction sector, many projects will face the risk of significant wage blowouts," News.com.au quoted Knott as saying.

"I think most fair-minded people would start to think something is fundamentally wrong when a barge welder earns more than the Prime Minister, whose salary is 350,000 dollars.

"And Queensland's Chief Justice, Paul de Jersey, on 395,000 dollars, is only earning slightly more than a ship's laundry hand or cook," he said.

The Minister for Workplace Relations, Chris Evans, said the AMMA raised concerns at high wage settlements on new projects by its members in the offshore oil and gas sector last September.

"In today's specific examples, they acknowledge that these rates were agreed to by the companies concerned," a spokesman for Senator Evans said.

"This sector has always paid rates well in excess of those applying in other industries," he stated.

The spokesman said the "current Fair Work framework restricts the likelihood of any flow-on of offshore oil and gas agreements to other sectors". (ANI)