2 years ago
ONLY ONE IN TEN FRONT LINE NBN WORKERS RECEIVED A BONUS
MICHELLE ROWLAND MP
If making things up about the NBN and being caught out was an Olympic sport, Minister Fletcher would be deserving of a gold medal.
During a press conference on 18 February the Minister claimed that “a substantial proportion of those [$78 million in NBN] bonuses were paid to front-line staff”.
This wasn’t simply an exaggeration.
It was the latest instalment of sheer rubbish by a shifty Minister who makes it up as he goes.
Data supplied by NBNCo shows only 179 out of 1,761 NBN employees earning under $100,000 received a bonus in financial year 2020.
This means a staggering 9 in 10 NBN employees earning less than $100,000 received no bonus at all.
Furthermore, despite comprising nearly 30 per cent of total employees, this cohort of 1,761 staff received less than 2 per cent of the $78 million bonus pool.
NBNCo also perversely cut the payments rates of small business sub-contractors by up to 30 per cent earlier this year.
In contrast, the NBNCo Board awarded 775 company executives earning over $200,000 an average taxpayer-funded bonus of $50,000 each during the recession.
This happened despite NBNCo hiding $1.5 billion in cost blowouts, concealing a larger than expected $7.4 billion cash flow loss, and setting themselves misleading revenue targets.
Something is terribly wrong when the Board of a publicly owned enterprise operates with such contempt for taxpayers and community expectations.
Background
Schedule A of the NBNCo and CEPU Technical Employees Agreement publishes salaries of call centre staff, network engineers and advanced telecommunications technicians as ranging from $61,036 to $87,891.
A Senate Question On Notice (question 13) states 179 employees earning less than $100,000 in FY2020 received a bonus. The NBNCo CEO said at a subsequent Senate hearing that NBN actually employed 1,761 people in that salary band in FY2020.
Senator KITCHING: How are we going on the band zero to $100,000?
Mr Rue: I have the answer for you. I don't have the zero to $50,000 and the $50,000 to $100,000.
Senator KITCHING: That's okay. I'll take the zero to $100,000.
Mr Rue: I've been advised for 30 June 2019 there were 1,855 employees that had a base salary of less than or equal to $100,000 and for 30 June 2020 that number was 1,761.
During a press conference on 18 February the Minister claimed that “a substantial proportion of those [$78 million in NBN] bonuses were paid to front-line staff”.
This wasn’t simply an exaggeration.
It was the latest instalment of sheer rubbish by a shifty Minister who makes it up as he goes.
Data supplied by NBNCo shows only 179 out of 1,761 NBN employees earning under $100,000 received a bonus in financial year 2020.
This means a staggering 9 in 10 NBN employees earning less than $100,000 received no bonus at all.
Furthermore, despite comprising nearly 30 per cent of total employees, this cohort of 1,761 staff received less than 2 per cent of the $78 million bonus pool.
NBNCo also perversely cut the payments rates of small business sub-contractors by up to 30 per cent earlier this year.
In contrast, the NBNCo Board awarded 775 company executives earning over $200,000 an average taxpayer-funded bonus of $50,000 each during the recession.
This happened despite NBNCo hiding $1.5 billion in cost blowouts, concealing a larger than expected $7.4 billion cash flow loss, and setting themselves misleading revenue targets.
Something is terribly wrong when the Board of a publicly owned enterprise operates with such contempt for taxpayers and community expectations.
Background
Schedule A of the NBNCo and CEPU Technical Employees Agreement publishes salaries of call centre staff, network engineers and advanced telecommunications technicians as ranging from $61,036 to $87,891.
A Senate Question On Notice (question 13) states 179 employees earning less than $100,000 in FY2020 received a bonus. The NBNCo CEO said at a subsequent Senate hearing that NBN actually employed 1,761 people in that salary band in FY2020.
Senator KITCHING: How are we going on the band zero to $100,000?
Mr Rue: I have the answer for you. I don't have the zero to $50,000 and the $50,000 to $100,000.
Senator KITCHING: That's okay. I'll take the zero to $100,000.
Mr Rue: I've been advised for 30 June 2019 there were 1,855 employees that had a base salary of less than or equal to $100,000 and for 30 June 2020 that number was 1,761.