Your ASU National Negotiation Team met with Virgin Australia representatives to progress discussions for your new enterprise agreement on 17 January 2018.
ASU members have put pressure on management and they have dropped some of their main proposals that would have cut your take home pay, but they still want to cut overtime for part time employees.
At the moment, if a part time employee works more than 8 hours in a day, they are entitled to overtime rates. Management want to change this to 9 hours a day. That means part time employees could be rostered on for 9 hour shifts all paid at ordinary time. ASU members have told us that they very strongly oppose this proposal, as it would make part time employees a cheap option for long and unsociable shifts – meaning both a cut in pay for part time employees, and a potential reduction in overtime for full time employees (why would management ever get a full time employee to stay back after 8 hours at overtime rates when they can get a part time employee to do it for less money?).
Your ASU representatives told management we cannot agree to cut overtime entitlements for part time employees. We need union members to stand together on this one if we are going to win it – we cannot let management divide workers by offering benefits to one group in exchange for reducing entitlements for another.
A reminder – wins we’ve had already by sticking together
Management felt the pressure from members sticking together and, have abandoned some of their main proposals to cut your entitlements, including:
- Cuts to penalty rates
- Cuts to higher duties allowance
- Reducing any overtime payments if a worker takes sick leave during the pay period
This is on top of a list of other wins we’ve already had:
- Getting rid of the ROS day - In its place full-time employees would be required to work one shift of 8 hours and 50 minutes in each 6 day block
- Fairer job selection procedure
- The ability for staff to make training requests and have them fairly considered
- Ensuring that salary underpayments are rectified as soon as possible, rather than making employees wait till the next pay
- Access to up 10 days family violence leave a year
- A commitment to working with the union to identify insourcing opportunities
- Increasing minimum hours of work for part time employees who want more hours (guaranteed at least 24 hours a week)
Some other matters still outstanding
We’ve told management it’s time to improve their offer and resolve other issues we’ve been discussing –
- Your pay increase – Virgin Australia are still only offering 2% pay increases a year
- Cutting sick leave from 18 days to 15 days a year
Our next meeting with management is 31 January 2018. The way we have got management to back off so far has been through showing them the staff are prepared to work together to stop the cuts. If you are not already a member it is time to join the union. You can join online here: www.asu.asn.au/asujoin.
If you have any questions, contact your local workplace delegate: (download the full bulletin here details) 
Virgin Australia Bulletin # 15 - 18 January 2018