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Union meetings and discussions were held over the last month to consider a package of improvements secured by FSU members and your FSU Bargaining team.  

Together, union members have achieved guaranteed pay increases and rates aligned with Bendigo Corporate and delivered a number of improvements to conditions. These include:

• Pay increases over the next three years of 5%, 3.5% and 3.5%.
• Alignment of minimum rates to reflect the Bendigo Corporate Enterprise Agreement.
• 12 weeks paid parental leave for primary carers and two weeks paid leave for secondary carers.
• Redundancy pay for all employees – either a maximum of 24 weeks severance pay depending on your length of service or retention of your existing redundancy pay if greater.
• Additional two days paid personal leave to 12 days.
• One day paid cultural and lifestyle leave per year.
• Five days paid Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural observance leave.
• Ability to access unlimited paid family and domestic violence leave once 10 days legal entitlement has been exhausted.
• Improved workloads and staffing protection.

You can find a summary here.

Next steps

This proposal will now go to an electronic ballot of workers who would be covered by the CWA. The ballot will take place from Thursday 8 February at midday (AEDT) to Friday 16 February at midday (AEDT) and will be conducted by Vero Voting.

If your employer was participating in the Community Bank CWA then you should have already received an email from Vero Voting containing a draft of the CWA and other relevant information. It is important that you carefully read this information prior to voting. If you have not received an email from Vero Voting and believe that you should have, then speak with your Leader or contact [email protected]

For most Community Bank workers, this CWA represents a significant improvement in your current pay and conditions – with many of you only covered by the Award (providing for the legal minimum) or a soon-to-expire Zombie Agreement, which means your conditions would revert to the Award when it expires.

If your Community Bank has an existing Enterprise Agreement, there may be terms which are not proposed within the CWA. If you need advice regarding this or any other questions about your current employment arrangement, the proposed CWA, or the process, please contact us as soon as possible prior to the ballot commencing by replying to this email or sending an email to [email protected]

What can you do?

This result shows that when we stand together with our colleagues, we build better workplaces.

This CWA is just the start – much more can be achieved at your Bendigo Community Bank with strong, active union members. So today is the best time to join if you’re not already a member, or ask a colleague to join!

Questions and feedback

If you have further questions, please reach out by emailing [email protected] and our team will be in touch.