Aurizon CEO sitting pretty; workers slog through negotiations

While Aurizon members are busy fighting to get a fair enterprise agreement that doesn’t strip away their pay and conditions, the company’s chief executive is dealing with his own challenge – deciding how to spend the 34 per cent pay rise he recently gave himself.

It’s been revealed that Aurizon chief executive Lance Hockridge’s pay rise last financial year took his earnings to a cool $6.1 million, making him one of the country’s highest paid executives.

Aurizon members should find the pay increase interesting, especially given the current enterprise agreement negotiations.

Management recently put its own version of the enterprise agreement to members directly, despite the fact the union said the company version would rob workers of their pay and conditions. Members overwhelmingly rejected the company’s offer.

The disclosure of the senior management team’s pay came as the company posted a 1 per cent rise in annual net profit to $447 million.

Mr Hockridge’s pay is made up of $2,5million in cash bonuses and $1.93 million in salary and fees.

Also revealed was that former chief financial officer Deborah O’Toole received $2.2million for the last financial year, with ‘termination benefits” accounting for $749,000 of that.

Aurizon layed off 960 workers last financial year.