AWU hits out at GrainCorp for squashing pay negotiations

The Australian Workers’ Union has called out company GrainCorp for cutting off negotiations over an extra 30¢ per hour.

Industrial action will take place against GrainCorp across the north-west of NSW after ending negotiations with its grain-handling workforce over 30¢ an hour.

The workforce of grain handlers will now begin one-hour stoppages at GrainCorp sites across NSW as part of protected industrial action, said the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU), which represents the workers. This group of 200-plus workers will commence their action with a month of random one-hour stoppages at grain-handling sites throughout the state beginning on Tuesday, 29 October.

According to the AWU, negotiations broke down at the Fair Work Commission (FWC) after GrainCorp executives refused to add a 1 per cent wage increase in year three of the new agreement.

“GrainCorp decided to disrupt a bumper grain harvest across western NSW for 30¢ an hour in two years’ time,” said AWU NSW secretary Tony Callinan.

“There are going to be trucks lined up at grain bunker silos all over western NSW next Tuesday. Thirty cents per hour in two years’ time would be a minor rounding error on GrainCorp’s balance sheet.”

Grain handlers move and store wheat, canola, barley, oats and other grains. Freshly harvested grains are then transported from rural properties to bunker silos for storage before being loaded onto trains for transport to the coast and then shipped to market overseas.

Last week, grain handlers voted to take action in a “protected industrial action ballot” approved by the Fair Work Commission. The workers have seen their pay go backwards in real terms over the last three years.

In 2021, 2022, and 2023, grain handlers received an annual increase of just 2 per cent a year despite rising inflation, which went up at a rate of 2.86 per cent, 6.59 per cent, and 4.10 per cent, respectively. This means, according to the AWU, wages have declined by 7.5 per cent.

In negotiations over the three-year deal, GrainCorp offered annual increases of 6 per cent, 5 per cent, and 3 per cent plus a $1,000 sign-on bonus, and their grain handlers want 6 per cent, 5 per cent, and 4 per cent plus a $1,000 sign-on bonus – a difference of merely 1 per cent in comparison.

“Our members work hard to deliver GrainCorp bumper profits, they are fed up with low wage increases and GrainCorp don’t think they are worth an extra 1 per cent,” Callinan said.

“One-off payments and annual bonuses at GrainCorp’s discretion are not going to cut it this time around.

“These workers do the same work as their colleagues in Queensland and they want to be paid the same, that’s just plain fair, and I’m pretty sure it passes the pub test, especially one south of the border.”