nbn employees get further wage increase
Employees covered by the nbn CEPU Technical Employees Agreement 2015 will get a boost to their expected wage increase following a successful application to vary the agreement.
nbn made the formal application to vary the agreement after the Commonwealth government relaxed its bargaining policies to allow a (slightly) greater increase than it had been offering during most of 2015, when the current agreement was being negotiated.
At that time, the federal government had set a 4.5% cap on total wage rises over three years. nbn’s best offer was an increase of 4.5% over three years (2.5%, 1% and 1%), in line with the total.
This led to a stalemate in the Commonwealth’s negotiations with the majority of its employees, leading the government to up its offer in October last year to a total 6%.
The nbn CEPU Technical Employees Agreement 2015 provided for wage rises of 2.5%, 1% and 1% - an offer which the CWU regarded as unacceptable but which at least did not involve any trade-offs of conditions.
The variation to the agreement means that relevant employees will now get increases of 2.5%, 2% and 1.5% over the life of the agreement.
