Alstom Transport PTY LTD Sydney Light Rail Operations and Maintenance Enterprise Agreement. You Decide! After 12 months of negotiations, RTBU representatives and management at Alstom Transport have agreed that it is now up to members to decide if the proposed Enterprise Agreement is acceptable. On January 12, RTBU Officials and Delegates met with members to advise them of the package. At these meetings members raised some specific questions about the on-call provisions and the voting process’s confidentiality. RTBU Officials and Delegates raised these concerns and received confirmation in writing that the voting process will remain confidential and anonymous. To make sure this happens, Alstom has engaged an external agency to run the voting process. Management has also agreed to include a commitment to not change the on-call provisions without consultation, with wording to this effect included in the draft agreement. It is now up to you to decide if you will accept the proposed Enterprise Agreement (EA). Before voting, you will receive a copy of the draft EA and information on how to vote from the agency, Go Vote. While we didn’t get everything, we know the offer from management has increased due to members joining and organising together.
What’s on the table ? A wage increase and back pay: • If the agreement is accepted, members will receive backpay of 2.5% for 2018 and 2.45% for 2019. • Management has offered no pay increase for 2020. • Additional pay increases of 1.8% in 2021 and 2% in 2023 • Extra tool reimbursement clause removed. Alstom will provide all tools required. • New subclause regarding purchasing of prescription safety lenses • New clause committing parties to develop a competency based classification structure. Maintenance of current conditions; including: • Wages will continue to be paid weekly. • Members will continue to be classified as shift workers retaining the entitlement of five weeks annual leave • Members will maintain roster payments over the entirety of the Easter Weekend. If you have any questions, please contact your workplace delegate or organiser.
PN Intermodal EA Ballot
The results of the EA ballot have been finalised, and with 88% of members voting, the EA was endorsed by a majority of members. Where to Now? In the final days of the Access Period, members made PN and the RTBU National Office explicitly aware as to what was going on out on the ground. As per the members’ directives (through the EA Bargaining Team), National Secretary Mark Diamond secured key commitments from Pacific National: Driver Delegate Workgroup A Workgroup will be formed (Delegates, the RTBU and PN) to sit down and resolve the six most contentious outstanding disputes, those being: • Attachment 1, clause 17: Cancellation recovery shifts • Attachment1, clause 4: Shift limits and 3up and 4up • Attachment 1, clause 1.1: All known working to be placed in the Master Roster • Attachment 1, clause 2.7.3: “Day in Lieu” and working an RDO
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• Interpretation of “direct contact” to the Driver concerned (voicemail and text messages) • Attachment 1, clause 3.5: Altering a Drivers Roster with less than 12 hours’ notice and sign on/off provisions If resolution cannot be agreed upon, these matters will be taken further as per the DSP Clause in the EA in a timely manner. On top of the above six issues, National Organiser Leanne Holmes will be collating a spreadsheet of every outstanding Notice of Dispute (NOD) across the country. Members have made it clear that that they are sick and tired of NODs going nowhere. Leanne will be getting in contact with Branch Organisers to ensure that all NODs are included. PN have been put on notice that Members will no longer accept reinterpretation, reimagining or reinvention of what a Clause means or is how it is implemented.
RAIL & ROAD March 2021
