Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

The first claim made by the member for Perth was this: he said that the AWA that Martin Donnelly Electrical Services employees are required to sign ‘provides that payment of bonuses, overtime, loadings, penalties or other allowances is at the sole discretion of the company’. That was the first claim that was made by the member for Perth. That claim is false. Once again the member for Perth, in what has become his characteristic style, has come in here and failed to disclose the full facts to the House. If he had disclosed the full facts to the House, he would have mentioned that the Australian workplace agreement stated that it was to be read in conjunction with the individual letter of offer of employment.

That letter of offer of employment and the other documentation make it clear that both overtime rates and annual leave loadings are payable and that in addition there are a series of other allowances payable to such an employee, such as a leading hand allowance, a motor vehicle allowance, an on-call allowance and a Christmas on-call allowance. In addition, the fares allowance under the AWA combined with the letter of offer is $30 a day compared to $20 a day under the current EBA. So the first claim that the member for Perth made in this House, which he has compounded this afternoon in his personal explanation, has been shown to be wrong, because he either did not have the letter of offer or was trying to be too smart by half with this House and pretend that the letter of offer and other documentation did not exist.

The second claim was about wages and pay. The member for Perth claimed that ‘there is no guarantee of a pay increase during the three-year life of the agreement’. Once again, this is false. The current EBA hourly rate of pay for a grade 5A electrician on a 38-hour week is $23.98. The letter of offer provides for a grade 5A electrician an hourly rate of pay of $30.02.

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