Steps – March 2021 (PDF version)
After a five-week hiatus at Serco’s request, Enterprise Bargaining with respect to an agreement for Correctional Case Officers recommenced last Friday (19 March 2021).
To the surprise of your bargaining representatives, Serco failed to table anything new of substance at the meeting. Whilst management has subsequently advised that draft clauses have been prepared, we are yet to see them.
Nothing on rosters.
Nothing on allowances.
Nothing on leave.
Nothing on salaries.
Nothing.
Serco has advised that the delays at its end in producing a counter-offer in response to our log of claims have been due to a number of levels of sign off required within the company.
Your union is also waiting for an answer as to their position on whether Correctional Supervisors should be included in the agreement, as our members have asked.
It is not good enough. A corporation the size of Serco should be able to expedite this process, not have it bogged down. Your union has made its dissatisfaction in the glacial pace of negotiations to date loud and clear.
Another meeting has been hastily scheduled for Friday 26 March 2021, probably occurring as you are reading this bulletin.
Regardless of the outcome of that meeting, the CPSU NSW has advised Serco that it now intends to initiate industrial action. The process to do so is long and complex and involves:
In the coming weeks members will receive a PABO ballot outlining a number of proposed actions. More detail about this will be provided in due course. In the interim, whilst we share your frustration, members are advised NOT to take industrial action of your own back – it is illegal and can lead to the prosecution of the CPSU NSW and/or your dismissal. Lets do this the right way and get the right result.
Also only CPSU NSW members will be able to participate in the ballot and the action – so this is the time to demonstrate strength in numbers. If you work with a non-member, encourage them to join NOW at www.cpsunsw.org.au/join.
The CPSU NSW has been swamped with inquiries from members regarding the payment of overtime.
It has been Serco’s position that where an employee takes personal, annual or other leave during their regular rostered hours, they are ineligible for overtime on additional shifts in that roster period. Until recently it has disregarded what it understands to be this rule and paid it regardless, but for some reason approximately a month ago, it began to enforce it.
The CPSU NSW has examined the Award and the Act and can find no reasonable basis upon which this would be the case. We have written to Serco to ask it to explain its interpretation and today we were advised it is reversing its position.
If you take leave on any of your seven rostered shifts in a period, you are still eligible for OT on the 8th and 9th shifts (and any others) that you work in that period.
We are now asking Serco how they intend to audit its payroll and make amends to any employees that have been underpaid. If you are in this category and do not receive monies you believe are owed, please contact us through the Member Support Centre on 1300 772 679.
One of the few things Serco has agreed to in principle is a Consultative Committee – a mechanism to raise operational issues of concern to our members with management and ward off industrial disputes at the earliest opportunity.
This Committee will meet for the first time on Monday 29 March 2021 and already has a full agenda. If you have issues of concern you would like raised, please do so through your delegates:
