News

Aruma: Enterprise bargaining update

After broad consultation with CPSU NSW members employed at Aruma, including surveys and members meetings, the union has served a Log of Claims to progress matters of interest to members. You can read the Log of Claims HERE.

Some of the key industrial issues identified by members include, but are not limited to:

Leave items

• Domestic Violence leave – enhancing existing provisions
• Parental Leave – improvements to paid parental leave
• Volunteers Leave – introduction of a new form of leave for volunteers to crisis organisations such as SES, RFS and Red Cross
• Special leave – retention and inclusion of existing provisions covered by the copied state award

General conditions

• Improvements to secure employment through the addition of the conversion of term employees to ongoing employment
• Rostering Principles and shift filling procedures – provisions of the copied state award to be maintained in the new Aruma Enterprise agreement
• Sleep over shifts – improvement to minimum payments from 3.5 hours to 8 hours per sleep over shift
• Sleep over shift vs active Night Shift – preference of Night Shift with reduction in reliance of sleep over shifts on the basis of work health and safety concerns
• SIL funded rostering/Community Participation funded rostering – CPSU NSW assisting Aruma to gain an improvement in providing in house community participation funding. As residents are entitled to choose providers for the programs they require, rosters often change where a resident nominates a provider other than Aruma to provide community integration. The CPSU NSW will actively work with Aruma to improve its capability to provide a one stop shop for accommodation and community integration programs of its residents.
• Incremental Progression/Pay Escalation – introduction of a career path and incremental scale that rewards good service and which recognizes the skills, qualifications, dedication and experience of CPSU NSW members. This will assist Aruma in retaining experienced and dedicated staff while reducing staff turnover.
• Internal transfers – introduction of a mechanism to facilitate internal, employee-initiated staff transfers. This will assist Aruma in retaining experienced and dedicated staff while reducing staff turnover.
• Staff to resident ratios – introduction of a staff to resident ratio to alleviate work overload for CPSU NSW members
• Staff facilities – introduction of a defined staff facilities at each worksite. This is important for sleep over shifts, night shifts and general well-being of CPSU NSW employed at Aruma worksites.
• Overtime – streamline overtime payments by reducing the time between working overtime and being paid for that overtime for CPSU NSW members
• Conversion of casual employees to permanent staff – introduction of a mechanism to convert long term temporary and casual employees to permanent employment. This will assist Aruma to reduce staff turnover and retain experienced dedicated employees
• Increase permanent part time hours to full time – introduction of a mechanism to increase part time hours to full time hours for CPSU NSW members.

This list is not exhaustive.

As bargaining continues, the CPSU NSW will issue updates to members to keep them informed and provide an opportunity to feed back into the process.