The Benevolent Society – Check all offers from management with care – May 2018 (PDF version)
CPSU NSW members were invited by TBS management to a series of meetings over the past few days. These meetings appear to be an attempt by TBS to avoid its obligations under the two-year employment guarantee.
You have a right to be employed for 24 months from the transfer date. In other words, you ‘should’ have a guaranteed job for another 14-15 months. Any voluntary redundancy will be paid at or near the absolute minimum under legislation, far below the Managing Excess Employees Policy.
TBS redundancy under its other enterprise agreement is capped at 16 weeks total for employees with nine or more years’ service. CPSU NSW (PSA) recommends to members to consider the benefit of 14-15 months guaranteed employment as opposed to three months’ or a couple of weeks’ pay to leave TBS.
Please consider very carefully your options.
Your employment guarantee for two years, including your salary and award conditions, cannot be changed without your agreement. And this is where we think that TBS is not being transparent.
If you put forward an EOI, you may be indicating you would agree to change your position, salary, and conditions, and come off the employment guarantee. If you accept a new job elsewhere in TBS, the CPSU NSW (PSA) understands you would move from your award to the TBS enterprise agreement (found HERE).
The union expects the salary rates in their agreement are much lower than what you receive under your Award. Review their classifications and related hourly rates in their agreement in the link above on pages 51-70 to see what the difference is. Check what your current hourly rate is first, as there are no yearly salary rates provided.
CPSU NSW (PSA) believes TBS management is trying to ‘push’ former ADHC employees out of TBS, or off the Award and the employment guarantee. After reviewing the TBS Enterprise Agreement, CPSU NSW (PSA) has come to the view that its enterprise agreement is not employee- or union-friendly at all! We strongly urge all members to carefully consider whether a new job with lower pay and less conditions, or up to 16 weeks’ pay, is worth giving up the two-year employment guarantee for!
CPSU NSW (PSA) is preparing to dispute the lack of genuine consultation by TBS in relation to these changes. Your union will inform members as we go of any developments. In the meantime, we strongly encourage all CPSU NSW (PSA) members, and all former employees of ADHC, to think twice before giving up your current guaranteed job with your current salary and conditions!
Under the NSW enabling Act, in summary, the transfer agreement with TBS for employees from ADHC must ensure:
The terms and conditions… cannot be varied during the employment guarantee period… except by agreement… accordance with any applicable industrial law, and
The employment… cannot be terminated by the new employer during the employment guarantee period, except:
If you ‘agree’ to a new job, you are more than likely ‘agreeing’ to giving up your salary, terms and conditions and your employment guarantee.
If you ‘agree’ to a redundancy, you are giving up 14-15 more months of guaranteed employment at your current salary with your current conditions for a maximum of 16 weeks pay.
Please share this with your colleagues who previously worked at ADHC and are now working with you at TBS. Let every former ADHC employee know that now is the time to JOIN the CPSU NSW (PSA) if they are not already a member. Any employee doing the work that came from ADHC can also JOIN the CPSU NSW (PSA).
