The National Martin Brower EA Committee celebrate after a successful negotiation meeting at Melbourne Airport.
As the previous document was rightfully rejected across the country, shortly members will have another opportunity to vote on a more satisfactory document with rate increases and importantly the current classification levels maintained.
BROOKLYN-BASED Chalmers Transport members have reached an in-principle enterprise agreement with the company.
Under the new arrangements, members will receive a collective 10-per-cent wage increase over the next three years, eight months back-pay commensurate with the length of negotiations and income protection insurance to be paid by the company.
TWU organiser Wayne Commerford said the agreement was hammered out over three meetings with the company. He happily reports that the company eventually accepted all the demands members had made in their Log of Claims.
“The workers were united in their quest for a strong deal and Chalmers Transport is one of those yards where the members and managers have a strong mutual respect for one another, so this also made negotiations a reasonably pleasurable experience,” Wayne said.
“The company basically said that the guys do a good job, that they were travelling well as a company and they were happy to agree to what was being asked by their employees.”
The members also secured:
- Assurance that full-time employees would be given preference for all standard work and overtime shifts over casual and labour hire workers
- Strong disputes resolution contractual clauses
- Three paid on-site TWU meetings per year
- Strong delegates rights’ clauses, and
- Strong OHS and Safe Systems of Work clauses.
The fight for workers’ rights continues after new National Retail Association (NRA) boss Dominique Lamb confirmed big business will persist in its push to have penalty rates cut.
The campaign is being rolled-out despite 97-per-cent of Australians overwhelmingly supporting workers being paid penalty rates, according to Galaxy Research, when they have to give up their weekends, nights and public holidays to work unsociable shifts.
TWU (Vic/Tas Branch) Secretary John Berger said that slashing penalty rates would be a crippling blow for people who work these hours.
“The TWU and the union movement in general fought hard to have penalty rates introduced into the modern award system and we will continue fighting to protect what we have,” John said.
“Cutting penalty rates has more to do with saving money for business by cutting pay packets, than creating jobs.”
According to The Australian newspaper, Ms Lamb said lower penalty rates and less restrictive retail trading hours remained top NRA priorities as “any reduction in penalty rates would assist our members to be able to employ more workers.”
Ms Lamb said “(the NRA) will continue to agitate for reform of weekend penalty rates”.
She continued to say the NRA reform agenda, which represents retailers including Coles and Woolworths, centres on having penalty rates reduced.
This would include, according to Ms Lamb, winding-back Sunday penalty rates from double time to the time and a half rates paid for Saturday work.
Employer groups have also long-cited undue pressure on business as a key reason to abolish penalty rates. However, a giant hole in the employer argument is that any drop in penalty rates will see many of the country’s lowest paid workers with less disposable income.
The TWU member-led Qantas Ground Services EBA committee has put its log of claims to management.
During a meeting with management the EBA representatives strongly pressed why they were the things that mattered to employees and reinforced the uniqueness of the occupation.
The demands put forward by the committee included a plan for a minimum of 30hrs per week for all part-timers, however QGS has rejected any increase to the minimum number of hours currently being offered by the company.
Information provided by QGS shows that our plan for 30hrs per week will amount to only 25 mins per employee of downtime per weekly roster.
When our team requested the Company’s log of claims, we were denied. Instead management provided us with some principles the Company has for our new Agreement:
Now is the time to show QGS management we are united in our demands. QGS can guarantee more hours for workers – they just do not want to.
Members will be advised in regards to any developments.
The TWU would like to thank all members for supporting their delegates and the Union in remaining strong and united.
Pass on the message to non-Union members that now is the time to join the TWU to present a united force in negotiations.
For further information, please contact TWU delegates and TWU aviation organiser Dissio Markos.
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