Incat workers denies pay rise despite huge profit
BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART — Shipbuilding company Incat made a $53 million after-tax profit in 1998-99 — $17 million more than the previous year — yet Incat boss Craig Clifford is denying a modest pay rise to workers, claiming that the company has a cash-flow problem.
The Hobart Mercury reported the profit — which Incat did not want made public — on May 5 and stated that this brings to $142 million the total profit of the three associated Incat companies for that period.
Unions at the site, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union in particular, have been campaigning for a 5% pay rise and improvements in working conditions, including a 38-hour week.
The union threatened industrial action at the time of the queen's visit to the factory in March. In return for not taking action, the company promised to notify the union by April 12 of when a pay rise would be granted. Clifford instead announced that the company did not have enough work orders to grant the rise.
A work-to-rule campaign at the site is now in force and the 1000 workers are more determined than ever to get their pay rise.