Clerical workers’ pay

Press, 12 November 1985, Page 8

Clerical workers’ pay

Most general clerical workers will get a wage increase of about $4O a week rather than $5O which a headline in “The Press” yesterday might have led them to believe, according to the advocate for the employers, Mr Colin Mclnnes.

He said that most clerical workers were in grade three, and their wages would rise from $241 a week to $278.84, an increase of $38.84. After a year’s service grade three clerical workers getting $244.21 now would

get $284.84, an increase of $40.63.

For grade three workers with two years service, getting $247.42, the increase would be $41.42.

Mr Mclnnes said that the new award did not give recognition to the equal pay claim put forward by the clerical unions.

“We told them we were firmly of the view that the award was already an equal pay document and that that was how it had developed,” he said. What the clerical workers

had got was basically the “going rate” in the current award round, plus higher service payments because payments in the award had fallen behind other documents. Another significant move was the abolition of the 20 to 20%-year age classification and the 20¥z to 21-year classification. This meant that a 19¥z to 20-year-old clerical worker, who was getting $158.30 a week would now get $214 a week, an increase of $55.70.