Member Update: September 30, 2022

Dear Members,

It's been another productive week. We've been out and about in Region 7, making the rounds to depots to speak to members about the latest discussion points in our bargaining meetings with Busways.

In Region 6, we're still working through a number of rostering issues, which you can read about below. 

At Wickham Trams, there has been unanimous agreement from members in a recent survey, to endorse the broad log of claims to Keolis Downer Hunter.

For Keolis Downer Northern Beaches members, the audit of payroll issues is proceeding as planned and we're expecting a report back soon.

For members who have not yet activated their gift cards distributed earlier in the year, today is the last day to activate them.

And a reminder that last Thursday was a public holiday so we encourage members to check your upcoming payslips to make sure that you received your rightful entitlements.

We hope that you continue to stay safe and well.

Region 6 EA Update

We met with Transit Systems on Tuesday this week and it was a productive meeting. We seem to be moving back towards traditional bargaining which is a good thing, but we’ll be taking much with a grain of salt given all the drama that has come before. Transit Systems has had some personnel changes at a high level so the people that were driving the strategy that delivered us a company Bargaining Representative have now moved on. Hopefully this new direction is consistent.

Keep in mind, the bargaining meetings are not to decide anything- that is done by the members. What we’re trying to do is find a middle road that preserves as much as possible of our rostering provisions, but also delivers us a single pool of work in a combined roster. Unfortunately, it’s the legacy drivers who get shafted when there are 2 rosters in play as we’ve all seen over the last 4 years. The company is now building actual rosters to see how certain changes to their original proposal would look, and how much it would cost.

One of the biggest challenges for both Unions is how we merge the two roster groups. Attached to this are things like 5 weeks Annual leave as well as ADOs which the company has already said they can’t afford to roll out for everyone. While it’s early days, we have an idea on how we might accomplish that and give workers more choice over their pattern of work. A combined RTBU/TWU delegate meeting is planned for October 4^th where we’ll try and flesh this out more and then we’ll start having discussions with members in the yards. This is broad level stuff, and we haven’t even talked about what penalties would apply and when. The first step is evening out the differences between the work groups so we can combine all the work together and remove any incentive for the company to favour one driver over another.

A bulletin will follow after the meeting next week and we’ll set up combined yard meetings to start discussions with members and get feedback on what comes out of the delegate’s meeting.

Region 7 EA Update

It has been brought to our attention that a bulletin from last Friday may have not been received by all members. This is being resent today so check you email. Willoughby meetings are being organised following the meetings at Ryde last week.

Wickham Trams EA update

There has been unanimous agreement from members in a recent survey, to endorse the broad log of claims to Keolis Downer Hunter.

1. Keep all current entitlements and conditions in current EA

2. Seek real pay increase to reflect a living wage

3. Enhance flexibility within rosters to accomodate work/ life balance

4. Provision for KDH to reimburse medical costs for members associated with maintaining their employment

5. To include a consultation clause so members can have input into structural, policy and other changes Keolis Downer Hunter make that affect working conditions

6. To update the provisions of the enterprise agreement according to any changes in legislation

In seeking feedback from members, one of the main concerns is rostering issues and how under the current agreement it is not worker friendly, which is likely to be the biggest contention for the EA.

KDNB Payroll Issues

The company advises that they are on track to implement the changes needed to fix the payroll system.

They expect, after testing, that a solution will be in place around the end of October.

The audit is proceeding as planned and we're expecting a report back soon. 

The union is currently seeking legal advice about overpayments that are made after the payroll system gas been updated. 

RTBU gift cards

If you haven’t already, a reminder that TODAY is the last day you can activate your gift cards from earlier this year.

While it’s expected that most members would have already done so, a reminder can’t hurt!

In solidarity, 

David Babineau and Daniel Jaggers