Every day across this country highly skilled lift industry workers build elevators and escalators. They maintain them, repair them and release trapped passengers when there is a fault. But across the country, how lift industry workers are paid for their labour is very different!
In Tasmania, lift industry workers are determined to see the rates and conditions align with their mainland counterparts. Currently many Tasmanian lift industry workers are paid significantly less than workers on the mainland, even though the lift industry companies operating in Tassie are, for the most part, controlled and directed from the mainland.
How the campaign started:
- The Otis Lift EBA expired at the end of November 2023 and the Kone Lift EBA expired in July 2023
- Since 2017 members have been working to gain alignment between the two agreements
- All workers at Otis, Kone and Schindler are CEPU Tas Members
- Since Schindler’s began operating in Tas the company has been paying Tas workers at mainland rates, proving it is possible to have pay parity
Members are fighting to win:
- Mainland wage parity
- Local industry parity, working toward an industry agreement
- A reduction in the cost of living (Hobart CPI has risen 15% over the life of the last agreements)
Previous action, over generation, has created a solid union culture within the Tasmanian lift industry. Maintaining good wages and conditions and recent improvements around safety with rigging. Positive outcomes, but there is still work to do.
“I’m talking action because we have 100% Union density in the Tas Lift Industry, and in unity, we have the strength to improve our wages and conditions” – CEPU Tas Member and Branch President and Lift Industry worker, Neil Gillham
Workers from all the major multinational elevator companies in Tasmania have agreed to seek a parity claim with the Big Island and have endorsed taking and escalating industrial action to win their claims and stand up for Tasmanian workers, across the state.
So far in their campaign, CEPU Tas members have participated in:
– A complete ban on after hours calls
– Walking off the job every Friday at 12:30pm
– Overtime bans
– Bans on the supervision of subcontractors
– Consultation meetings with the Fair Work Commission
Tasmanian workers do the same job as those on the mainland, they’re facing the same increased cost of living and are fighting for the same pay. And they will keep fighting and holding the line, together, until they win.
If you catch a lift as part of your daily activities, union members in the lift industry keep you moving.
Support Tasmanian lift industry workers in their fight for “Mainland Parity Wages”.