1 July 2014

Statement by Steve Knott, AREEA chief executive

IN recent months the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has made completely untrue and repeated assertions that AREEA is “misrepresenting” the wages earned by maritime employees in the offshore oil and gas maritime industry.

The latest example of this is another untruthful assertion in today’s West Australian newspaper.

It is time for the MUA to cease running its inaccurate and tired campaign deliberately confusing rates of pay between their maritime members and higher paid offshore construction workers, in an attempt to vilify the real position of AREEA and the companies that employ their members.

For the record, AREEA has never stated maritime workers are responsible for cost overruns on any resource sector project. We have never claimed the maritime workers represented by the MUA are earning wages in excess of $350,000 per annum.

Any public statements on such extraordinarily high wages for offshore cooks, kitchen hands or barge welders have always been referencing offshore construction rates, paid to workers who are eligible and usually covered by other non-maritime trade unions.

Examples include AREEA’s media statement on 29 April 2014, and a prominent opinion editorial in The Australian newspaper on May 16, 2013. We have also referenced offshore construction salaries in this graph, using data derived from registered with the Fair Work Commission and publicly available.

In these statements, it is very clear that we are talking about offshore construction rates, not the rates paid to MUA eligible maritime employees.

Moreover, on several occasions AREEA has publicly clarified the remuneration being paid to maritime workers, whom are firstly employees of our offshore support members and secondly members of the MUA, are in the vicinity of $170-$240,000.

Public statements where we cite these maritime wages include on 23 May 2014; 28 February 2014; and in data provided for a Deloitte Access Economics report, published last year.

Attached here for the public record are full-year wage calculations for lower paid (general support vessels) and higher paid (construction support vessels) maritime employees in the offshore resource sector. The data shows the Maritime Schedule 1 occupation pays up to $183,000 per year, while the Maritime Schedule 8 occupation pays more than $247,000 per year.

We can only assume the MUA is continuing to misinform the public and its members about AREEA’s position to deflect from the union’s reckless industrial campaigns that damage the reputation of an industry that directly employs 2,500 maritime workers and creates 10,000 jobs in flow-on effects.

It is time the MUA’s officials be responsible in industry negotiations and work towards sustainable and fair wage increases for their members in the future.

Such an approach would be in the greater interests of securing more investment into future oil and gas projects and providing further opportunities for maritime workers and their families.

Click here for a PDF of this media release including relevant contact.