20 Aug 2015

Union calls for oil refinery pay offer lift

8:03 pm on 20 August 2015

The union for oil refinery workers at Marsden Point Oil Refinery says the company should up its pay offer to staff after a spectacular half-year result.

The New Zealand Refining Company has announced a net profit, after tax, of $65 million, and is offering workers a wage rise of half a percent.

FIRST Union organiser Jared Abbott called the offer "miserly".

"In difficult years, the workers have willingly accepted wage freezes," he said. "But after the workers lifted the company back into profit they're only being offered an extra 0.5 percent. "

Mr Abbott said the refinery CEO's remuneration package kept rising 40 percent, year on year, in good times and bad.

"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."

He said that this could not be justified.

"It is an insult to the local workers who have worked excessive overtime to keep the refinery profitable. In light of its net profit, the company can afford to lift wages."