The Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission has found that the Commonwealth Bank oversold the agreement by misrepresenting its terms in pursuit of a yes vote – particularly with regard to those on IAs and the way in which the agreement would affect them.
The Commission has decided that it will only approve the agreement if CBA give a number of major undertakings. Some have already been offered and accepted, but the bench have asked for one more major undertaking.
The Fair Work Commission has requested an undertaking to include pay rises for IA employees in the agreement and to pay all increases to all employees without conditions.
This is huge. It has always been the FSU’s position that all employees should be able to bargain for enforceable, guaranteed pay increases collectively regardless of contract type.
If CBA offer such an undertaking, it would mean that they will be held to the false representations they made while selling the agreement.
It’s now up to CBA to decide whether or not they will make that undertaking in order to have the agreement approved.
If CBA choose not to make this undertaking – to remedy their lies – then the Commission will decide that the agreement was not genuinely agreed and dismiss their application. The 2020 EBA will not be able to be approved without this major undertaking because CBA lied.
The decision is 39 pages long and subject to CBA making a major undertaking regarding pay and that undertaking being accepted by the Commission. Our team will continue to closely examine the decision and the other undertakings while we wait to hear from CBA.
As we know more we will be in touch with more detail.
Undertakings are important in this context because they’re enforceable and become a term of the agreement.
This is not yet total victory in the face of an unfair agreement that was oversold, but it is a huge step ahead from where we were when the vote happened.
Whether we land at some improved version of guaranteed pay increases that cuts at the heart of CBA’s unfair IA practices, or at total dismissal of the dodgy agreement, none of this huge progress would have been possible without the incredible support and solidarity of FSU members at CBA.
You should hold your heads up high while we wait to hear more.