Collective Bargaining Agreement Engineering and Iron Steel Industry

This registered collective bargaining agreement sets basic minimum wages in the General Engineering Section of the engineering and iron and steel industry. It was signed on 31 October 2023 and gazetted in June 2024, but is deemed to have come into operation from 1 September 2022 and to run to 28 February 2023 — so it is a backdated settlement of a past wage period.

The parties agreed a wage freeze on NEC minimums across all grades for September 2022, then a 5,23 per cent increase across the board from 1 October 2022 to 28 February 2023.

For the freeze month the skilled worker minimums were US$1,63 an hour at Class 1 (about US$311,33 a month), down to US$1,19 at Class 4 (US$227,29). Graded workers ran from US$1,39 at Grade C1 (US$265,49) to US$1,02 at Grade A1 (US$194,82), and skilled worker trainees from US$1,46 at Trainee Class 1 to US$1,15 at Trainee Class 4.

From 1 October 2022 those rise: Class 1 to US$1,72 an hour (US$328,52 a month), Class 2 US$1,46, Class 3 US$1,36, Class 4 US$1,25. Grade C1 goes to US$1,46 (US$278,86) and Grade A1 to US$1,0733 (US$205,00). Trainee Class 1 moves to US$1,54 and Trainee Class 4 to US$1,21.

The rates are indexed in US dollars and paid at the prevailing interbank rate on each company's payroll processing date. Employers who pay part or all of wages in US dollars must remit the corresponding NEC dues in US dollars too. Nothing stops a works council negotiating better terms than these floors.

One oddity in the printed table: Trainee Class 3 at US$1,24 sits above Trainee Class 2 at US$1,23 in the September 2022 schedule, reversing the usual order. The October schedule has them the right way round at US$1,40 and US$1,30.