The Unions met with Toll Dnata management on 7 October 2014 to review a draft document and to see how many issues we were still apart on. We were also hoping to receive a pay offer at this meeting.
Whilst there has been some movement in relation to various provisions of the EBA we are still not happy with some of the company's claims that are still on the table.
The Unions believe we are not actually that far apart however it will require the company to re-address some of their claims and come back with a reasonable pay increase and other improvements before we would consider the offer being satisfactory to present to members.
Unions reassert our position
The Unions made it quite clear about that our expectations were that there needed to be a fair and reasonable pay increase as well as limitations of the use of casuals and or labour hire. It is our view that people should be permanently employed unless there is a need to cover short term peaks and troughs or unplanned absences.
We believe we have made some progress with the company:
- Agreeing to new wording that acknowledges that casuals and Labour hire should be used as supplementary labour and not as a preferred form of employment.
- Acknowledgement that overtime needs to be paid at a higher rate
- That there needs to be fairness and equity in relation to rosters and hours of work as well as access to overtime
- Acknowledgement that an allowance should be paid if you are required to buddy someone when doing on the job training.
- Agreeing to some better wording around meal breaks and a meal allowance when working overtime.
There is still a way to go
The company however still holds firm to some of its claims including that they want people to go to fortnightly pays and they also want the ability to bring people on for 3 hour shifts.
The Unions vigorously opposed these claims suggesting that they were not money saving for the business and were a principle position rather than anything that would deliver any long term savings for the business as was being proposed.
There is still a way to go however the Unions made our position very clear at the close of the meeting that the company representatives needed to take our position away and give it some serious consideration, drop their claims in relation to shorter shift lengths and fortnightly pays and come back with a realistic and fair pay offer.
Time for things to move along
We made it clear that we are not interested in dragging these negotiations on any longer and that they needed to come back to us next week with a favourable response or we would need to consider other alternatives to achieve our claims and a reasonable EBA outcome for our members.
What's next?
Please stay tuned, once we have met with the company next week we will most definitely be holding members meetings. Hopefully these meetings will be to present to you a fair and reasonable offer from the company, however if Toll does not see the light we will be giving you a report back and asking you to consider your options to further our claims which may include endorsing industrial action.
Members will have a say
Please be reminded that any final position put by the company will most definitely be put to members to vote on prior to the union agreeing to any EBA being formally voted on. This is your EBA, you're working conditions and will only be agreed to by you.
If you're not yet a member of the Union it's time to join. You can join the ASU online here: http://www.asu.asn.au/asujoin