In what may have been the worst employment contract the FSU had ever seen, AMP shocked employees and employment experts last week by issuing new contracts that threatened to strip employees of their most fundamental rights.
The contracts contain invasive surveillance and medical privacy clauses that would allow AMP to hand over employees’ personal information to any third party it wants, as well as request a medical examination by a practitioner of AMP’s choice to determine an employee’s fitness for work.
The contracts also contain a clause that circumvents our right to disconnect, as well as contain annualised salaries that absorb overtime, penalty rates, loadings and superannuation.
While AMP later confirmed they would not use surveillance and monitoring on employees in their homes (though only after intense backlash from union members), other elements of these terrible contracts remain, and the FSU is making an application to the Fair Work Commission.
These draconian contracts have rightly caused outrage not only from members, but across the media and from some of the most senior members of the Federal Government.
Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt called AMP’s contracts an “outrageous abuse of power from one of Australia’s biggest companies”.
“This is the latest example of big businesses seeking to cut basic rights and conditions for their workers,” said Senator Watt.
He went on to say that AMP’s strategy was “a taste of things to come if Peter Dutton is elected”.
“[Dutton] is already promising to cut the same rights that AMP is attempting here and he’ll carry out more of the cuts to pay and conditions that big business are demanding.”
We agree – the only thing worse than big business seeking to strip employees of their basic rights is big business emboldened by a federal government that supports their agenda. They’ll get that under Dutton.
Peter Dutton has already vowed to repeal our right to disconnect, along with much of the Albanese Government’s ‘Secure Jobs, Better Pay’ Bill. It’s this Bill that is tipping the balance back in workers’ favour, which is resulting in the best real wage growth in a decade and improving our working conditions.
If you’re an AMP employee, the best thing you can do right now is join our campaign calling on AMP to negotiate with us for an enterprise agreement that genuinely protects staff. A collective agreement is the only way to stop AMP from pulling a fast one on us again.
If you don’t work for AMP but want to stop other employers from following AMP’s outrageous lead, sign up to our federal election campaign. Too much is at state this election, and workers cannot risk Dutton.
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