The 600 workers facing the sack at Alcoa's Point Henry plant in Victoria are being offered lucrative pay packets to help set up a new cut-price smelter in Saudi Arabia.
The Herald Sun says Alcoa has been in talks with Premier Ted Baillieu and federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet about the plant.
It says the workers are being offered up to $163,200 a year tax-free pay, $27,500 a year travel expenses plus free accommodation to help set up the Ras al Khair smelter.
Their take home pay would be more than $3100 a week, before the travel perks, compared with $1400 a week after tax at the Geelong plant.
A source told the paper many workers were seriously considering the offer.
Earlier this month Alcoa said it would review the viability of Point Henry because low metal prices, a high Australian dollar and input costs have made it unprofitable.
Workers will have to wait until the end of June, when the review is completed, to find out whether they will keep their jobs.
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