Union win at Melbourne Water

01 July 2026

ASU Delegates at Melbourne Water discovered a significant discrepancy in the application of a key section of their Enterprise Agreement. Appendix 2 of the MW EA is quite complex, but essentially it requires that Professional Officers who are required to hold a tertiary qualification as part of their role are to be classified at Band 6.2 and progress through to the top of Band 7.

Discussions with ASU members revealed that around 1/3 of the Waterways and Land Officer (WLO) group at Melbourne Water had had Appendix 2 applied, and were being paid on one level, while the remaining WLOs had not. When we first raised this matter with MW Management, they told us that Appendix 2 had been applied in error in some cases, and that the lower paid WLOs would never be able to progress to the higher level. We did not accept that explanation, and we took the matter on.

After nearly 18 months of exchanges of correspondence and some difficult and robust meetings, Melbourne Water have now agreed to allow the whole WLO cohort to be paid in line with Appendix 2 and provide backpay to those who did not progress incrementally. This will result in significant back pay, as the incremental progression will be applied retrospectively, in some cases going back several years.

This only happened because of the persistence and diligence of the delegates, and because the ASU members in this cohort acted collectively and in solidarity.