Staff of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council have comprehensively endorsed a new enterprise agreement by a margin of 74 per cent in favour to 26 per cent against. The package, negotiated by the CPSU NSW and staff bargaining representatives is the result of more than 18 months of bargaining with NSWALC.
As previously highlighted, the new enterprise includes:
Remuneration
Staff whose salary is under the maximum of the new salary band are eligible to receive an annual salary uplift of between 1.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent depending on performance and any movements in the general labour market. Staff will also be eligible for an annual performance bonus of between 1.3 per cent and 2 per cent, payable just prior to Christmas each year. In order to be eligible for any salary uplift and performance bonus, staff must be assessed as at least meeting expectations.
Staff whose salaries are in excess of the upper limit of the band their position has been allocated to will be subject to the transitionary “grand-fathering” process. For those staff whose current salary is below the minimum of their allocated band, these staff will be transitioned to the minimum salary point of the band allocated to them.
Parental leave
Conditions from the previous enterprise agreement have either been preserved or improved.
For example, the supporting parent payment being doubled from 2-4 weeks.
Kinship care has also now been included in parental leave.
Improved leave entitlements
Previously, staff had access to 10 days of cultural leave, with 9 of these unpaid. Now, all staff will have access to 5 days of paid cultural, ceremonial and volunteer leave per year. NSWALC employees will be able to use the leave for their own cultural activities or to show their support for Aboriginal events.
15 days of “personal leave” is being repurposed into 10 days “personal leave” and 5 days of “additional leave”. These 5 days of “additional leave” can be used for taking a wellbeing break, a health day, as well as facilitating Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander employees returning home and going back to country. A medical certificate will not be required for this additional leave.
Compassionate leave has been extended from 2 days per occasion to 3 days per occasion to cater for factors such as travel requirements.
Hours of Work – staff will be able to choose between two options:
Work a 70 hour 9-day fortnight with a rostered day off, or
Existing staff who don’t want to move to a 9-day fortnight can elect to remain on a 10 day, 70 hour fortnight
Superannuation
Employer superannuation contributions will increase from 10 per cent to 12 per cent.
NSWALC will also match additional employee contributions up to a further 2 per cent. To qualify, staff have to complete a 26-pay qualifying period.
The new enterprise agreement will now be submitted to the Fair Work Commission for approval. This process can take some time. In the intervening period the current enterprise agreement remains inforce. Staff who are eligible will continue to receive incremental increases in salary (increments) during this period. Should you have any concerns in relation to this, please contact me via email at
The CPSU NSW would like to extend our gratitude to our local bargaining representatives Di Lee, Shannon Field, Stu Jordan and Peter Lalor. I’d also like to acknowledge the great work of the independent staff representative – in particular Nick Redmond who worked tirelessly to achieve the best possible outcome – it’s been a pleasure to work with you.
Please do not hesitate to contact the CPSU NSW on 1300 772 679 if you have any questions regarding the new agreement.
