You would be aware that your employer the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) have commenced enterprise bargaining towards a new enterprise agreement which will contain your working conditions.
For CPSU members who are employed as SCO’s, SSCO’s or PSCO’s in South Australia, Tasmania or Victoria, this agreement, when made, will replace your current agreement, the long-winded NHVR (Operational and On-Road Regulatory Compliance) Enterprise Agreement 2020-2022, which expires on 9 October 2024.
For CPSU members who are employed as SCO’s, SSCO’s or PSCO’s in New South Wales, this agreement, when made, will replace your current Copied State Instrument the equally long-winded Roads and Maritime Services Consolidated Salaries Award 2019.
Bargaining representatives met for the first time two weeks ago in Brisbane. Employees were represented by either the CPSU delegation or two other regional unions, or by one of a dearth of individual bargaining representatives.
The NHVR advised us at the commencement of the meeting that they had bizarrely engaged an outside consultant for the bargaining process, initially describing him as a facilitator but later as their “lead negotiator”.
Essentially NHVR with all its financial resources and significant employee relations are admitting they do not have either the capacity or the appetite to negotiate directly with their own employees.
It’s not technically unlawful, but it is embarrassing and in the CPSU’s experience, unprecedented.
The division of your organisation who are meant to be experts in making sure you perform in your own roles need help to do their own job.
Other than this strange admission of incompetence, very little else materialised in the meeting. It has been agreed the next meeting will be in one month where all bargaining representatives, including the individual ones and the NHVR, will be required to produce their log of claims.
A log of claims is essentially a list of what each bargaining representative wants in the new agreement. You would be aware that we have already circulated a survey and we are well on the way on compiling the CPSU log from it.
Finally, a word of caution moving forward. The NHVR will be circulating communications about the process regularly over the next few months. CPSU members need to be aware that these communications will be the NHVR’s opinion on how bargaining is progressing, and not necessarily shared by everyone including your Union.
The best way to keep informed of what is happening is to speak with your local CPSU delegate or failing that, one of the CPSU enterprise bargaining team below.
Know someone who isn’t a member? There has never been a more important time to be part of one collective voice!
For NSW employees visit : www.psa.asn.au/join/
For Tasmanian employees visit: https://www.cpsu.com.au/join/
For Victorian employees visit: https://www.cpsuvic.org/join/
For SA employees visit: https://psaofsa.asn.au/join-now
