QUBE Members EA update

“Wouldn’t Feed Strawberries to Pigs” 

A senior QUBE manager made this remark during negotiations for the last Enterprise Agreement, and it appears that very little has changed in the way QUBE view and value their employees. 

As you will see below, QUBE has truckloads “strawberries”, and we’ve tracked down just where they are all going. 

QUBE has paid over $14 million dollars (14,033,604) in remuneration to just 7 directors in the 2022 financial year. 

We wonder if any QUBE employees can recall these directors making a meaningful decision in the past year? 

Dispersed equally, that money could have paid the 200 or so Train Crew covered by this Enterprise Agreement an extra $210,000 each over the life of this proposed EA. 

Even if these directors capped their yearly salary at a very healthy $1,000,000 each, it would free up over $100,000 to be paid to each train crew employee covered by this agreement. 

Instead, you are being told what is offered is ‘substantial’. The 6% increase offered in the first year is likely to cost QUBE less than $2m over the next financial year to implement. It hardly seems substantial in comparison to the $4.2m paid to a single person. 

Interestingly, despite QUBE’s insistence the RTBU pay offer is unreasonable, the money paid to just one director could nearly entirely fund the difference between QUBE’s wage proposal and the RTBU’s wage proposal for the life of this proposed agreement. 

A 6% pay rise also doesn’t seem substantial compared to the 26.6% rise in revenue, or the 30.7% increase in earnings per share, or the 16.7% rise in dividends in FY22. Why are the employees producing this growth not being offered a fair share of their spoils? 

Why are employees being threatened with a real terms pay cut when QUBE is profiteering off and driving current levels of inflation? 

Why were QUBE employees covered by this agreement paid a pay rise of 3.5% in FY22, when key management personnel saw their compensation increase by nearly 30.0% in the same period? 

The answers to these questions should be obvious, and it means there is room to move on QUBEs pay offer. Vote “YES” to all forms of Protected Industrial Action and to fight to receive your fair share. 

If I have any questions or queries, who do I direct them to? 

As always, Members are encouraged to speak with your Depot Delegate, your Divisional Organiser or call the NSW RTBU Office on (02) 9264 2511. 

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