Workers at money printing facility Note Printing Australia (NPA) – a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) – are stepping up industrial action that has cut the production of Australian banknotes by 20 percent, according to the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU).
In May, about 97 percent of AMWU and Electrical Trades Union (ETU) workers at the Craigieburn plant in Victoria voted in favour of work stoppages and overtime bans to support their claims for a four percent wage rise, a casual conversion clause for labour hire and domestic violence leave.
“There has still been no movement from the company at this stage so we’re imposing further bans on the use of some software applications and mobile work phones,” says AMWU Victoria print assistant secretary Tony Piccolo. “The company has told workers that production is already down 20 percent. These new measures will restrict production further.”
Piccolo noted RBA Governor Philip Lowe's recent speech at an Australian Industry Group event in which he raised concerns about businesses cutting costs through wages.
"It’s hypocritical of the RBA to deny their own workers fair pay rises while calling for pay rises to boost the economy," Piccolo says.
Bans on a number of software applications are due to begin next week. The unions have called on the NPA and the RBA to meet with workers as soon as possible.
NPA has produced Australian banknotes for more than 100 years, evolving from T.S. Harrison’s original print works that produced Australia’s first circulating banknote series in 1913.