Labour dispute ends at Australia's biggest sugar maker Wilmar
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CANBERRA, Sept 13 (Reuters) -Workers at Australia's largest sugar maker, Wilmar Sugar and Renewables, voted to accept a pay offer, the company said on Friday, ending a months-long industrial dispute that disrupted sugar production.
Wilmar's eight mills churn out more than 2 million metric tons of sugar worth around $1 billion a year, over half the country's total, most of which is exported.
Industrial action from May delayed the start of the cane crushing season and led to several shutdowns after it had begun.
That raised the risk that the full harvest might not be processed before bad end-of-year weather made it impossible to bring in cane.
Fifty-five per cent of workers voted in favour of a three-year deal that gives more than 1,300 of them a one-off bonus, a 12% pay increase by year-end and 4% more in December 2025, Wilmar said.
"It draws a line under a period that impacted not only our business and our people, but the growers and harvesting operators who are so critical to the sugar supply chain," a spokesperson for the company said.
Wilmar's mills form the economic centre of communities on Australia's hot and humid northeast coast, where sugar is a major industry.
"The deal doesn't give us everything our members were asking for, but it's a huge win for our members and the community," said Australian Workers' Union official Jim Wilson.
A pay dispute at another mill, Tully Sugar, owned by Chinese conglomerate COFCO 600737.SS, also ended last month with workers accepting a deal.
"It's great to have this issue finally resolved," said Owen Menkens, the chairman of CANEGROWERS, an industry group.
"It has dragged on for far too long, has delayed cane crushing across half of the industry, and caused great anxiety to growers and harvesting contractors," he said.
Wilmar said that so far this crushing season its mills had processed about 6.3 million metric tons of sugar cane, around 40% of the estimated crop.
Wilmar is owned by Singapore's Wilmar International WLIL.SI.
Reporting by Peter Hobson; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Sonali Paul
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