Holden staff pay rise is 'revolutionary'
Holden has put a deal to its workers, offering them basic nine per cent pay rise over three years, as well as performance-based bonuses.
The offer comes two weeks after it sacked 100 casual staff members at its Elizabeth plant, in Adelaide's northern suburbs.
At the start of February, Holden announced it would cut production at Elizabeth, from 450 cars per day to 400.
In January, the South Australian Premier, Jay Weatherill, travelled to Detroit in the US to meet with General Motors to negotiate a taxpayer-funded rescue package with the car company.
Mike Devereaux, Managing Director of Holden, defended the deal on offer to workers, saying it is unique because it rewards everyone in the company depending on productivity, quality and sales.
"It's something I think is quite revolutionary, not just for the auto business but for business in general, is to link compensation to outcomes."
"When we do all those things and we do them well we pay the workers, we pay all the workers, not just the people who build the car," he said.
Australian Manufacturing Workers Union National Secretary, Dave Oliver, told the ABC the union is supporting the deal.
"A three per cent wage increase which will keep up with CPI (Consumer Price Index), but the bonus is in recognition of the hardship the workers had endured and will go a bit of a way to compensate those workers," he said.
"Yes, we are negotiating agreements from the tail end of a bargaining round right across the manufacturing sector and the deal that's been achieved with Holden is on par or maybe slightly below what we've been getting across the country."
The new agreement will be voted on by workers within the next two weeks.
