As we advised in our recent bulletin Aerocare have appealed against the Fair Work Commission refusal to approve the Aerocare Collective agreement 2017.
We can now advise that the hearing is before the full bench of the Fair Work Commission (i.e. 3 people) on 19th October 2017 in Sydney. The hearing is open to the public and starts at 10am and should take about a day.
The Fair Work Commission are unlikely to announce their decision on the day of the hearing, we would expect the decision will be known around December 2017 but there is no time limit on when a decision has to be handed down. There is a lot of material to consider so it may take a while.
Employers often blame unions and their members when we challenge the terms of agreements at the Fair Work Commission and so what Aerocare management are saying about the union members testing the law is not unusual.
Some employers do it to spook employees out of enforcing their legal rights to get what is fair and what they are entitled too by way of pay and conditions. It might take time to do this but in the case of the Aerocare agreement we have been telling the company for months that we had deep concerns about their proposed agreement so it should not have been a surprise.
Since the Aerocare agreement was made the rates in the relevant award have increased by 3.3%. If you had been on the award you would have had this increase from 1 July 2017.
It is great to see that Aerocare has acknowledged what we have said for months. That they can pay you above the 2012 Agreement anytime they want --- that the company have finally increased your pay rates by 2.5% just goes to prove we were right again about what the company can and can’t do. It is a shame that the increase was not the same as those on the Award got.
As we continue to say it would be best for everyone if the company spent less money on legal fees and more time at the bargaining table trying to get a deal that meets their legal requirements and rewards ALL hard working staff including casuals but at the moment they don’t want to do that.
We will keep you posted on what happens next.
If you want to check out our previous bulletins on the EBA negotiations go to www.asu.asn.au
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AeroCare Bulletin - 11 October 2017