Managers at Metro Tasmania have seen "massive" pay increases over the past few years totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars, while at the same the bus group has saved over $400,000 in wages for unfilled mechanic vacancies, a union has claimed.
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Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union state organiser Jacob Batt said Metro is still balking at a proposal to increase wages to an "industry rate of pay", which he said was the already-delivered 10 per cent increase in the first year and a 9.5 per cent increase in years two and three.
"That is well below what Metro management are receiving, and is the only way to fix recruitment and retention issues," Mr Batt said.
About a third of mechanic positions are vacant at Metro because its rates of pay are well below industry averages, he said.
The company has saved at least $400,000 in expenditure by continuing to operate with numerous vacancies.
He unveiled leaked internal Metro documents that showed that a restructure last year resulted in company expenditure on maintenance management positions increasing by 134 per cent over the last two years.
This included a wage jump for Metro's new asset and infrastructure manager, Danny Thompson, who replaced state maintenance manager Philip Jenkins, who resigned in 2022.
They also created a new role to fulfil some of the duties of the state maintenance manager, he said.
Mr Thompson now earns an annual salary of $132,000, compared to the full time equivalent of $95,000 that Mr Jenkins was earning just a year earlier.
Metro's human resources head Jacqueline Allen, who is leading the stalled negotiations with Metro mechanics, is paid over $188,000, up 18 per cent over the past two years, according to the leaked pay documents.
A spokesperson for Metro said the wages listed by the AMWU were "inaccurate".
"The figures quoted by the AMWU are union-generated and make assumptions that are, once again, inaccurate," the spokesperson said.
"Executive salaries are reported publicly through Metros Annual Report and are available online.
"The salary claims made by the AMWU regarding the General Manager, People and Safety [Jacqueline Allen] are false."
But Mr Batt said the salary figures for Ms Allen were current and were sourced directly from Metro internal documents.
He said: "If these wage increases can be given to Metro senior management, there is no reason the crucial mechanics should be left out."
"What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
"It is clear the Liberal Government's priorities are to look after the Metro bureaucracy, rather than ensure mechanics have an industry rate of pay that would fix recruitment issues and get bus routes restored for the Tasmanian people."
The Metro spokesperson said it was important that the company deliver a new Enterprise Agreement that is "fair, affordable and reasonable".
Metro has already provided a significant salary increase to our engineers - for the majority of our engineers they have received on average a 10.22 per cent market adjustment for year one," the spokesperson said.
Metro will not negotiate with the union through the media."
