Union agreement cements NBN wages bill

James Riley
Monday, 15 November 2010 15:48

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

An enterprise bargaining agreement signed between the NBN Company and key unions should be enough to enable the construction of the National Broadband Network without the direct risk of a wages-led cost blow-out, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has told the Senate.

The agreement was signed by the ACTU with the Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) coordinating other relevant unions and the NBN Company enabling relative cost certainty for the network roll-out, Senator Conroy said.

Details of the cost model, including the wages model and training costs are excpected to be revealed with the release of the NBN Co business case, which is expected as soon as the end of the week.

At the peak of its construction phase,  the NBN Co is expected to employ as many as 25,000 workers, prompting some business groups to voice warnings about a wages blow-out, particularly in regional areas.

Senator Conroy said with an enterprise bargaining agreement in place the wages costs were stablised and budgeted.

 

"Yes, it is a very competitive labour market currently evolving in Australia - not quite at the levels of (before the global financial crisis,) but going in that general direction," Senator Conroy said.

"But the NBN Company is very conscious of this, and they have been engaged in discussions with the local industry about the provision of services. The government is very conscious of that, in that we want to ensure that we have enough technicians."

Government has offered a $100 million training package as part of its agreement with Telstra on the closure of the copper network to update technicians with copper-based network skills with the skills and accreditation required for the fibre optic network roll-out.

"We are putting forward $100 million as part of a package to retrain technicians who have their primary experience in copper networks into the future fibre networks ... to ensure we do not have to waste all of that experience and expertise."

Senator Conroy said he had been kept informed about the enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations at arms length and said deatils were contained in the NBN Co business case. He accused the Opposition of trying to inflate the issue in order to delay the roll-out of the network.

"They (the EBA's) have been signed off and agreed. There has been no suggestion at all that there would be a wages blow-out," he said.

"I think it is a fantasy of those opposite who simply hope that these things would happen because they just can't understand why those residents in Wiliunga are going to get access to fibre optics."

The CEPU warned in September through an article in The Australian that each one percent rise in construction labor costs was forecast to add $1.4 billion to the total cost of the network roll-out.