Vic: MBAV members to meet Welch over 36 hour week deal

AAP General News (Australia)
04-05-2000
Vic: MBAV members to meet Welch over 36 hour week deal

MELBOURNE, April 5 AAP - Victoria's peak builders' organisation will meet today to
discuss a possible variation on a deal guaranteeing a 36-hour week by 2003.

The Master Builders Association of Victoria chief Brian Welch (Welch) said a variation
on the deal may be acceptable.

Employers are expected to join a deal signed yesterday by unions and major Victorian
builders guaranteeing a 36-hour week by 2003.

The agreement was signed by a breakaway group of employers, led by Multiplex Constructions,
who abandoned the Master Builders and their fight against a union push for a shorter working
week.

The deal came after a sustained industrial campaign waged by the Construction, Forestry,
Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the Electrical Trades Union and the Master Builders -
who locked workers out.

But yesterday's deal, while delivering a total 15 per cent wage rise over the next
three years, did not (NOT) include a 36-hour week.

Instead, all sides agreed to phase in the introduction of the shorter hours - with
nine extra rostered days off next year and in 2002.

The 36-hour week would take effect in the next agreement due to begin in 2003.

Under that agreement, workers will receive an extra 13 rostered days off and a wage
rise of three per cent or the CPI, whichever is the lower.

Despite the concessions, both the unions and employers said they were proud of what
they had achieved.

CFMEU state secretary Martin Kingham and Multiplex managing director Noel Henderson
said their respective offices had been "flooded" with calls from employers hoping to sign
up.

AAP st/bdm/br

KEYWORD: BUILDING DAYLEAD

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