Dear Member,
I’m sorry that it’s been so long between updates on negotiations!
Since my last update we’ve made some good steps forward in bargaining with CBA. We’re holding a briefing next Thursday to update you in more detail. RSVPs are essential, and you can do that here.
Last week we mostly worked through claims to do with making it easier to get the leave you want approved, and how we say the dispute resolution process needs to be improved to give confidence to employees that workplace issues can be resolved independently and fairly.
Next week we’ll focus on hours of work, span of hours and our claims around changes to hours/days of work. We’re also set to talk about the long running issue of how to calculate Part Time Long Service Leave in a way that doesn’t allow for accruals to go backwards depending on the hours you’re currently working.
We’ve come to an in-principle agreement with CBA about a better way to treat Part Time additional hours that we’re confident will help give Part Time employees some assurances that their contracts will reflect the hours they’re actually expected to work going forward.
There’s still more work to do on some of the other issues affecting Part Time Employees, and if you work part time, I’d encourage you to read more about that, and support our claims here.
We’ve made important progress on our claim to untangle the contracting mess (IAs) that caused a chunk of the large scale underpayments picked up last year, but there’s a lot of work left to do here for the union to be satisfied that CBA employees won’t be left trapped on contracts that are leaving them worse off.
On the topic of contracts, we’re moving through discussions about “annualised salary packaging” in the EA which is best described as the more proper legal version of what CBA have been using IAs for – to package up entitlements under the EA by way of a higher salary.
The union’s position on this is that we’d need to be satisfied that people couldn’t end up worse off year on year as many have done on IAs, and that there would need to be other protections and flexibilities in place for employees. We’re working through this further and will keep you all in the loop.
Lastly, I know this was a long update and you probably have some questions!
We’re holding a briefing next Thursday to update you in more detail. RSVPs are essential, and you can do that here.
In Unity,
Allison Cruze