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Your Enterprise Agreement: Where it is at?

Thank you for your support and patience whilst this insufferable process rolls on. Your Delegates have heard your concerns and they have filtered through.

Here is a brief outline of what has been happening:

• As you would be aware, no sooner had the ink dried on the in-principle agreement at the Fair Work Commission (FWC) on 27 June 2023 that MTC introduced a new condition in its favour; the sign-on bonus of $200 was only payable to casuals on a pro-rata basis, which is based on the percentage of the possible hours they could have worked in a year.
• We attempted to clarify that this was its position and have it revert the error through emails on 29 June, 3 July and again on 6 July 2023;
• When MTC refused, we referred the matter back to the FWC on 10 July 2023;
• At the FWC on 17 July 2023 the Deputy President ordered MTC to provide names and calculations to the CPSU NSW for us to determine how many casual employees would be affected and by how much;
• These calculations were provided by MTC on 19 July 2023, and from which we were able to identify several members of the CPSU NSW, your colleagues, who would be financially disadvantaged;
• On 22 July 2023 we again emailed the company to advise it of this, and that our support for the agreement in those circumstances would be withheld, but nonetheless MTC should proceed to ballot and let the staff decide;
• We also pointed out that MTC had wrongly excluded Escort Officers (who are Correctional Officers) from its calculations;
• After more than a week of consideration by MTC, it agreed that escort officers who they had previously described as “non-custodial” would get the bonus but in very ambiguous terms;
• On Friday 4 August 2023 we again wrote to MTC to clarify the above.  You can view this correspondence HERE.

You can see we have not been inactive, but your employer has been clumsy at best, and obfuscating at worst.

We are continuing to fight to get this agreement made as soon as possible. Unfortunately, our enthusiasm to get deserved pay relief in your pockets has not been matched by MTC.

We will keep you informed on any developments and continue to advocate on your behalf.