Vic: Union leader rejects $100,000 building wage claim

AAP General News (Australia)
02-14-2000
Vic: Union leader rejects $100,000 building wage claim

A building union leader has hit back at claims construction workers' wages will hit
$100,000 a year if their latest wage claim succeeds.

The Master Builders Association of Victoria claims the average city construction worker
is currently earning more than $80,000 as a result of wage increases well above those
for other workers over the past six years.

Executive director BRIAN WELCH says if a 24 per cent pay claim is successful many construction
workers would be earning $100,000 a year.

But Victorian Trades Hall Council construction convenor BRIAN BOYD says the claims
are based on the wages of those workers who are the exceptions to the rule - those working
vast amounts of overtime on big sites.

Mr BOYD says 90 per cent of building workers are on salaries of between $40,000 and
$50,000 a year.

AAP RTV hmg/ra/msk/as

KEYWORD: BUILDERS (MELBOURNE)

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