After a difficult last few weeks dealing with redundancies and restructuring, we have now resumed negotiations for the new Support Staff and Lawyers Agreements.
We had a meeting today (9th October 2017) and have another meeting planned for 17th October 2017.
It is fair to say we have made some progress but not on every issue so we still have some negotiations to go. Pay rises and duration of the agreement are key issues that are outstanding, as is who should be covered by the new agreements.
Your negotiating team intend at this stage to hold meetings of members after our next meeting to get feedback from members on where we are at and what we should do. These will be important ASU members’ meetings to decide what’s next.
In the meantime, though, there has been one setback that will slow progress down a bit.
Unfortunately the original Notice of Employee Representational Rights sent to staff back in March 2017 was incorrect and so needs to be provided to staff again.
This needs to be resent to staff because if it isn’t then an agreement, if made, cannot be approved by the Fair Work commission.
This technical drafting issue can only be solved by resending the notice to staff to be covered by the new proposed agreements and restarting the time lines required by the Fair Work Act.
This is unfortunate, but better we fix this now than go any further.
What next?
Watch out for details of members’ meetings in coming weeks.
If you are not an ASU member now is the time to join and have your say on what is in the next Agreement affecting your pay and conditions.
You can join the ASU on line at https://www.asu.asn.au/asujoin or ask your organiser or delegates for a membership form.
ASU Branch Organisers contact Details: (download the full bulletin here for details) 
Slater & Gordon Bulletin - 9 October 2017