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NO

NO (pdf version)

On Thursday 24 June 2021 Serco provided your Union, for the first time, their vision for an enterprise agreement and asked for comment within twenty-four hours. After negotiation of a more reasonable timeframe, the CPSU NSW provided this feedback on Friday 2 July 2021.

You can read this response HERE. Notwithstanding negotiations had gone on for several months, the proposed agreements contained claims that had never been discussed, and ignored reasonable items raised by your Union. In summary we told them that this proposal would not be acceptable to our members, that critical working conditions had been unfairly excluded, and we need to get back to the bargaining table and produce something that provides security, incentives and fairness for its workforce.

Then there was the issue of the wages – a mere $2.67 per hour increase off the current absolute minimum wage for your industry, which would mean you are the second lowest paid Correctional Case Officers (CCO) in the entire country.

Serco responded to this feedback with a “thanks, but no thanks”. They have decided to proceed to a vote of all CCO’s as to whether you will accept this agreement from next Wednesday.

We will provide you with greater detail as to why this agreement is unacceptable over the coming week. But at this stage we only need to be clear on one point.

What Serco is presenting to you to accept is not an agreement – it is their wishlist. They haven’t listened during the enterprise bargaining and this is what they think they can get away with, maximising their profits at your expense in doing so.

Rather than address retention and recruitment issues, this lowball offer would exacerbate them. Accepting this agreement means you are resigning yourself and your colleagues to being short-staffed and underpaid for the next two years.

From Wednesday 14 July 2021 all CCO’s will be asked to vote to accept this agreement. Be clear there are two choices here with very different outcomes:

If the majority of employees vote yes to accept the proposed agreement:

1. The agreement comes into effect after approval by the Fair Work Commission. You receive a pitiful salary increase, the bargaining is over and you do not get an opportunity to renegotiate until September 2023. Serco wins, you lose.

If the majority of employees vote NO to the proposed agreement:

1. We return to the bargaining table to forge a better, fairer outcome. Despite the pleas to the contrary, this is not and won’t be their final offer;
2. Pending the results of the simultaneous Protection Action Ballot Order (PABO) ballot you will receive separately in the mail, we will take industrial action, including work bans and stoppages to demonstrate to Serco they cannot operate without you and we are serious about obtaining a better deal; and,
3. We embark on a community and media campaign to obtain you what you deserve – a set of terms and conditions of employment that keep you safe and reward you fairly for your work.

Serco have continually said they want to make an agreement. But they have dragged the chain during bargaining in an attempt to frustrate you into now accepting their first inadequate offer.

We say you deserve better. Stand with your colleagues and reject this insult by voting NO from Wednesday 14 July so you can get it.

What can you do?

• Encourage your colleagues to join the PSA online at: cpsunsw.org.au/join
• Give a copy of this bulletin to your colleagues.
• Print this bulletin and put it up on your notice board.
• Listen to our podcast on Enterprise Bargaining
• And follow our Facebook Page

Troy Wright
Branch Assistant Secretary
CPSU NSW