{"id":80218,"date":"2026-02-12T16:57:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T05:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/?p=80218"},"modified":"2026-02-12T16:57:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T05:57:28","slug":"qld-workers-paid-less-than-other-states-for-same-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/media-release\/qld-workers-paid-less-than-other-states-for-same-work\/","title":{"rendered":"QLD workers paid less than other states for same work"},"content":{"rendered":"

What: <\/span><\/strong>Workers walk off job in fight to be paid the same wages as colleagues in NSW and VIC.<\/span><\/p>\n

When: <\/span><\/strong>9am, Thursday 12 February 2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Where: <\/span><\/strong>Forecourt, Parliament House, Brisbane<\/span><\/p>\n

Who: <\/span><\/strong>Workers from Winc Australia Pty Ltd, Members of Parliament, UWU Officials<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Workers on Thursday will protest against Queenslanders being paid less than workers in NSW and Victoria simply because they live in the Sunshine State.<\/span><\/p>\n

Distribution workers from Winc Australia in Brisbane \u2013 a major stationery supplier – are fed up with the wage disparity and are taking Protected Industrial Action outside Parliament today.<\/span><\/p>\n

They are among Queensland distribution workers from retailers including Bunnings, ALDI and Target who are paid less than workers in other states for the same work. Metcash, owners of IGA supermarkets, pay their Victorian workers 10 per cent more than Queensland workers. Woolworths liquor distribution workers in Queensland get $5 less an hour than staff in Victoria.<\/span><\/p>\n

Workers at Winc refuse to accept another wage offer from the company that sees them paid approximately 11 per cent less than Winc workers in Sydney for doing exactly the same job. They chose to rally outside Parliament and call for political support because Winc has the Queensland Government contract to supply stationery and business supplies to the Parliament.<\/span><\/p>\n

United Workers Union official Penny Vickers said paying Queensland workers less was a hangover from many years ago, but current cost-of-living issues in Queensland have erased state-based differences.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLiving costs used to be cheaper here, the companies could get away with it. But now Brisbane housing costs much more than Melbourne, and is on track to match Sydney in 5 years. Entry level housing is now the most expensive in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe most recent inflation figures show Brisbane with the highest capital-city inflation at 5.2 per cent a year. Do we get cheaper power bills, cheaper groceries or medical care? How does Winc justify paying workers from Queensland so much less?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do these companies get discount labour in Queensland which hits workers, families and the state economy?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Winc is owned by American private-equity firm Platinum Equity which has US$50 billion of assets under management and generates USD$100 billion of revenue. Winc claims it cannot afford to pay Queensland workers the same as other states at the same time Platinum Equity claims Winc enjoys a very profitable 6 per cent earnings return before tax on just under $1 billion in revenue.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What: Workers walk off job in fight to be paid the same wages as colleagues in NSW and VIC. When: 9am, Thursday 12 February 2026 Where: Forecourt, Parliament House, Brisbane Who: Workers from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50,241],"tags":[282],"class_list":["post-80218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-release","category-public-sector","tag-warehouse-workers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80226,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80218\/revisions\/80226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}