Highest paid striking full-time employee receives over $55,000 per annum - ATS

As we enter Day 23 of the ATS dispute where about 180 workers remain outside the premises, the ATS management has provided clarification on the conditions provided to ATS employees.

ATS says the highest paid striking full-time employee receives a take-home pay of over $55,000 while the lowest is paid just under $10,000 per annum.

The company says no one at ATS is paid less than a take-home pay rate of $4.77 per hour (the basic rate of pay and an average of 30% loading for allowances is given to every full time and permanent part-time worker) without overtime.

 It says that the workers get 20 days Annual Leave per annum with a 10% leave loading allowance, 15 days Sick Leave per annum, the employees receive a meal allowance to when their hours of work commence or finish between 5.30am and 7.00am, overtime meal allowance - the value of which is more than 25% higher than the highest overtime meal allowance under the current Wage Regulation Orders, 40% of unused sick leave paid out at the end of each  year as a sick leave incentive and the balance is accrued for emergencies, 8 weeks of Long Service leave when employees reach 10 years and 3 day Paternity Leave provision. 

The management has also clarified in a statement that the ATS workers receive full pay in the case of workplace accidents - not the prescribed two‑thirds, ATS covers all medical treatment and associated costs for workplace injuries, all trade certified employees receive annual tool allowances, all full-time employees are entitled to an annual gratuity payment of $650, they receive overtime rates at time‑and‑a‑half for the first two hours with double‑time thereafter and they also get free transport to and from work when commencing or finishing an ordinary shift or overtime between the hours of 7pm and 7am.

Staff not using free transport also receive a transport allowance.

The ATS management also states that for the last 11 years, annual performance-based increments have been paid as per agreed pay scales and they also have a comprehensive outpatient medical cover, including overseas evacuation to NZ and Australia, fully funded by the Company. 

ATS says they have also undertaken a Job Evaluation Exercise and was working with the Federated Airlines Staff Association to introduce market-based rates of pay, with the condition that no pay rates will decrease.

The management says the association has rejected this proposal.

The association will comment later today.