Marsden Point oil refinery announces spectacular half-year result amid low wage offer

While the New Zealand Refining Company Limited posts a spectacular half-year profit, a union representing workers at the site is questioning whether a proposed 0.5% pay rise is all the company can afford.

“Despite announcing a healthy half-year result, the Marsden Point bargaining team is only offering workers a miserly 0.5 percent pay rise,” says FIRST Union organiser Jared Abbott.

“In difficult years the workers have willingly accepted wage freezes, but after the workers lifted the company back into profit they’re only being offered an extra 0.5 percent, even though the CEO’s remuneration package kept rising in the good years and the bad,” says Abbott.

“We’re seeing the growth of a two-speed wage economy at the company: the fast lane for the CEO, the slow lane for everyone else. This can’t be justified,” says Abbott.

“It is an insult to the local workers who have worked excessive overtime to keep the refinery profitable when the CEO’s remuneration has risen 40% year-on-year.”

“In light of its net profit after tax of $65 million, the company can afford to lift wages,” says Abbott.

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