News

Wednesday, 28 October 2020

CPSU NSW drop PABO application as NSW Aboriginal Land Council gives ground on agreement termination issue


Concessions Push – Aug 2020 (PDF version)

The CPSU NSW has withdrawn an application with the Fair Work Commission (FWC) for a “protected action ballot order” (PABO) in exchange for an undertaking from NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) that “should the Council at any stage apply to terminate the current Enterprise Agreement (EA). NSWALC will provide the CPSU with five working days’ notice, prior to lodging the application with the FWC”. The deal was confirmed in conciliation proceedings before the FWC on Friday, 23 October.

The agreement allows the parties to “deweaponise” and continue bargaining without the immediate spectre of either industrial action or termination of the current enterprise agreement. Should NSWALC seek to terminate the current EA the notice period will allow the CPSU NSW to file a fresh PABO application and have it dealt with before the enterprise agreement could be terminated by FWC. Click HERE for a copy of our joint undertakings with NSWALC.

During conciliation the CPSU NSW repeatedly stressed that we had no plans to take pre-emptive industrial action against NSWALC – and this remains our position – however as existing employment arrangements were vulnerable and NSWALC had refused to assure the union that it would not move to terminate the current agreement, we felt we needed to be in a position where we had a legal right to defend the pay and conditions of staff. We stand by this decision.

Moving forward we plan to meet with NSWALC and all employee bargaining representatives over a three-day block in the week commencing 9 November. While some progress has been made in relation to the terms of a new enterprise agreement, we expect to spend a significant amount of time discussing the more contentious issues including an increase in weekly hours of work from 35 to 38, dropping flex-time, introducing a new remuneration model, and reducing staff redundancy pay.

In an effort to bridge the gap between NSWALC’s remuneration proposal and our own position on wages we have:

  • Dropped our claim for a 2.5 per cent annual increase in salaries. Instead we have proposed using movements in the Australian Bureau of Statistic’s Wage Price Index, which measures changes in the price of labour, as a market reference point for future salary increases at NSWALC. NSWALC would like to adopt a similar index prepared by the consultancy firm Mercer, however we have rejected this on the basis it would involve a commercial relationship between NSWALC and Mercer, and we want to be confident that any external analysis is freely available to staff and genuinely independent
  • We have also proposed that any future pay rises would be dependent on employees meeting reasonable performance expectations.

In doing so we have sought to incorporate the two key elements of NSWALC’s remuneration proposal, being performance based pay and the desire to align future movements in salaries to broader market trends.

On other key issues, we have said that the CPSU NSW:

  • Is unlikely to support NSWALC’s 38-hour week, but will take any proposal to members if it’s backed up with full financial compensation
  • Want to maintain a flexible-working-hours scheme, but will consider a nine-day fortnight proposal based on a total of 70 ordinary working hours
  • Opposes any reduction in staff redundancy entitlements.

In other developments, staff bargaining representatives yesterday jointly wrote to Council via the Chair, Ms Anne Dennis, to raise issues of concern. We support this move and hope Council give staff representatives a fair hearing.

For further information on bargaining, contact our NSWALC representatives, Diane Lee, Peter Lalor, Shannon Field and Stu Jordan or our industrial staff, Kirra Jackson and Thane Pearce on 1300 772 679.

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Join today at www.cpsunsw.org.au/join.

 

United we bargain, divided we beg!