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Member Update: July 22, 2022
Dear Members,
Enterprise Agreement negotiations sitting at various stages. We're working our hardest to ensure that they all meet members' expectations and deliver the best outcomes.
In Region 6, the payrises owed to the 900 drivers had become a sticking point. The RTBU and TWU sent out a joint message last week on the matter. Today members are celebrating a win after the TSA agreed to hand over the payrise owed to these drivers. Wages are not a bargaining tool, and the pressure we placed on TSA together was strong enough to make them pay up. Congratulations to everyone who fought for fairness! See below for info on how we won!
We kicked off negotiations with CMET today alongside the ETU. They have already responded to some of our claims, so in this case a quick progression is on the table. The aim is to hopefully take an offer to a vote in September. The next meeting is scheduled for 26 August and will focus on rostering.
In Region 7, we're waiting for Busways to respond to our concerns about their proposal with the aim of establishing a middle ground to start negotiating. Once they've come back to us, we'll be reaching out to members to progress the process.
In Newcastle, Lizanne is going over the offer and we're aiming to take it to members for a vote in the next few weeks. This timeline included 1 week where the company must, under the Fair Work Act, put it to employees to look at before the deciding vote. We are nearing the end of finalising the document. It shouldn't be too long before Keolis Downer presents members with a document to vote on.
Today, we also met with KDNB for ongoing discussions around payroll issues. The finer details are outlined in this Express.
We hope that you continue to stay safe and well.
CMET Bargaining
Today the RTBU and ETU met with CMET in the first bargaining meeting. The company is keen to progress things as quickly as possible and so have responded to some of our claims already. These are often ‘in principle’ agreements which means they agree to do it but exactly how is yet to be sorted out.
A committee will meet next week to work on formulating rostering principles. These will deal with things like increasing the notification period for roster changes, increasing the display period for rosters, changes to the probationary period, changes to the progression steps in classifications, the mechanics of an Additional Day Off, defining maximum and minimum lengths for different shift types, and anything that impacts rosters. The point is to come up with broad guidelines we can put into the EA, but nothing so specific it means CMET can’t run the business properly.
Flagged clauses will be rewritten, and in some cases deleted. Replacements will be provided for the unions to consider.
The principle of a night shift allowance has been agreed to but not the amount. The principle of a Broken Shift allowance has also been agreed to but not the amount. For both of these, the company will come back with proposals and costings to show why a certain amount has been arrived at.
The next meeting is set for August 26th due to people being on leave, but we’ll be continuing discussions via email between now and then. The company genuinely wants this done fast and is looking for a result to be put to employees for a vote in September.
We will report back as things develop.
Region 8 Pay Issues
We met with KDNB today to discuss the timeline for an audit to get to the bottom of these payroll issues once and for all.
The next meeting is scheduled for Friday 29 July. But before then, KDNB will provide us with a document - what's being called the "source of truth" - that acknowledges what penalty payments members receive under their EA.
The union will go through this document to ensure it encapsulates all applicable penalties that members enjoy under their EA.
Once both parties agree on the document it will be presented to the auditors, which they will then use for auditing purposes. KDNB have indicated a timeline of a no more than a few months for the final audit to be completed.
A reminder that everybody will be audited as part of this process. KDNB will be putting resources towards making this happen sooner rather than later.
Region 6 EA Update
In response to the TWU demand for the money the government has given to TSA for employee pay rises to be passed on, the RTBU of course backed any action the TWU members demanded to take.
TSA had been sitting on the payrise for #900 drivers to sway negotiations. This is not a new tactic for them, with the company having sat previously on a Region 3 payrise for over 2 years.
To demonstrate the importance of this to workers, protected industrial action was planned for both morning and afternoon peaks for the whole of next week.
The company has now agreed to pass on this payrise to #900 drivers, and we applaud the solidarity of workers that made this possible. While legacy drivers have secured pay rises and backpay through RTBU legal action, there was unanimous support for our colleagues and solid backing for the planned action.
This is what solidarity looks like, and this is what it will take to get a result from these negotiations.
The next meeting is planned for August 5th and a bulletin will follow.
Region 7 Bargaining Update
In our last meeting with Busways on 15 July we continued to go through the document, raising our issues over clauses and identifying areas where wiggle room is or isn't appropriate.
The process has been constructive, but there are still few sticking points that need ironing out to ensure that the offer is up to standard with members' expectations.
We're awaiting their response on most of these, which will start forming the middle ground we can negotiate over. Once we have the return position of Busways on the items we’ve flagged, we can start putting specifics out to members and discuss these around our conditions and entitlements.
In solidarity,
David Babineau and Daniel Jaggers
