Bus Region 8 Negotiations

Corporate Services Function Review RTBU position on mandatory vaccination

The RTBU has been working with KeoIis Downer to put together a document to present to members. As previously discussed, the plan remains to have an informal vote ASAP, and then vote again formally on the same document in an Enterprise Agreement vote after transmission. Two main things have been achieved during our discussions.

Firstly, a two-tiered workplace has been avoided. The company has dealt fairly with the union as per the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed many months ago. There will be no repeat of the Region 6 experience here. The offer at the moment is a straight drag and drop of the existing Award into an Enterprise Agreement. The Award will be altered only where we have agreed or is necessary to comply with the Federal System but that’s it. There will be no loss of any conditions that are held in the Award, and Region 8 members will have conditions no-one else in the private sector currently enjoys. The trade off is that the company is offering less for pay rises. During the recent STA Award negotiations, the issue of the 2nd year pay increase was a problem that was eventually fixed by saying it would be 1.5%. This is because that was the government wages policy at the time. Recently the wages policy changed to 2.5% but after the Award was made. We finally have confirmation that the STA Award will be varied to change the 1.5% to 2.5% including the super increase. This change will be honoured by Keolis Downer for the pay increase of next year. After that the company is offering the Wage Price Index (WPI) which is currently around 1.5%. One positive is that apart from this first increase, any future superannuation increases will not be taken out of our pay. That means whatever we get in 2023 and beyond, will have the scheduled 0.5% super increase paid on top of it. We’ve obviously raised the issue of the pay rise not equalling the 2% income guarantee and have sought ways to confirm that work reduction would never outstrip pay increases. While the company is not willing to give these assurances (it would cost them even more than honouring our current Award) it remains the case that there’s only a certain amount that shifts can be cut and STA have cut close to the bone already. Added to this is the fact that KD want to keep drivers and attract more; they know the way to do this is not by reducing available work. Ultimately, we have achieved the most important outcomes we set as targets-

1. That there be no two-tiered workplace. 2. We preserve our conditions.

It remains for the members to decide if the price paid in wage increases are worth that sacrifice, although the government hasn’t exactly been generous lately either. A document is being finalised now and will be presented to the members ASAP before a vote.

As a result of the Corporate Services Function review, members in our salaried and administration were being forced from the NSW Train and Sydney Trains Enterprise Agreement to the inferior Transport for NSW State Award. To protect our members conditions, we listed the dispute in both the NSW Industrial Relations Commission and the Fair Work Commission and have agreed to fund this jointly with the ASU. The RTBU and ASU lodged an appeal in the Fair Work Commission (FWC) which was heard on Friday 17 September where a decision is pending. In addition, the RTBU, ASU and the Professionals have an upcoming hearing in the New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission (NSW IRC) seeking a new award that would have jurisdiction on the cohort of workers impacted by the forced transfer of Sydney and NSW Employees. This Award seeks to have the employment conditions transferred to TfNSW which would include the employee opal card, picnic day and recognition for incremental pay increases. The Award is based on sections 66 and 67 of the Transport Administration Act. The hearing date for this procedure is the 7 and 8 October 2021. The RTBU asserts that the key to protecting rail, tram and bus workers from COVID-19 lies in: • long term testing in the workplace comprising of a range of measures such as Saliva Swab testing, Rapid Antigen

Testing and PCR Surveillance testing; • a proactive priority vaccination rollout to rail, tram and bus workers at their workplace for those wishing to be vaccinated; • incentives from government and employers to promote vaccination of workers. The RTBU condemns the lack of leadership by the Federal Government in this area, and its failure to ensure all workers in the transport industry can access vaccines. This failure has led to an urgency in the vaccine roll out that has forced consideration of mandatory vaccination which is an entirely unworkable solution. The RTBU would like to see optimal vaccination rates for the health and safety of everyone involved in our transport systems. Recognising that there will be some who may not be able to take the COVID vaccines due to religious or medical reasons or even because they are conscientious objectors. No worker should be disadvantaged because of the political failures of Government.