ASU VICTORIAN PRIVATE SECTOR BRANCH
IN THIS ISSUE:
Penalty rates worth fighting for Airline workers united against cuts to standards
JUNE 2017
In this issue State of the Union
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Industrial round-up 9
Dnata
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New ACTU Secretary
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Victory in the fight to protect Paid Parental Leave!
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Fees
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Is your super with the best performing sector?
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Ask Terry
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Penalty rates worth fighting for 6 Minimum wage increase barely keeps pace with cost of living 7 Budget sting in the tail for women
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State of the Union
It’s been an eventful first half of 2017 across the union movement and the ASU has been no exception. The hard work and dedication of all our members and their amazing workplace Delegates across many of our industries continues. In many cases this hard work has paid off with some great wins for ASU members. Unfortunately, some of our members have been doing it tough as more and more employers seek to exploit loopholes in our industrial laws at the expense of their workforce. Too often we are seeing wages and conditions attacked as companies strive to get a competitive edge and cut costs. It’s a shame that at the same time, executive salaries continue to rise, and inequality in our community and in our economy deepens.
Every day there is a new story about workers in many different industries fighting off these kinds of attacks. Whether it’s employers trying to terminate EBA’s, or workers being locked out indefinitely during bargaining, or in the case of Dnata, the employer setting up a new company with just 2 ‘employees’ voting on a lower set of wages and conditions. These are all reasons why our industrial laws need to be changed so that workers are no longer subjected to this unfair treatment. The ASU will not be taking a backward step in defending our members against these attacks and you can read all about these efforts in this edition of Unite. Our union will stand up for members and we will work hard to make the case for change. I look forward to working with each and every ASU member towards this end. In unity Ingrid Stitt Branch Secretary
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Dnata
ASU members across airlines understand we are stronger together
Dnata is one of the largest ground handlers in the country with operations in all Australia’s largest international terminals. The ASU has strong union membership at Dnata and the union has negotiated a number of collective agreements across the country for passenger handling, ramp and cargo staff. When Dnata first set up in 2007 they took advantage of John Howard’s unpopular Workchoices legislation, and employed their staff on individual contracts known as AWA’s. They effectively undercut the rest of the ground handling operators overnight with this move. The Dnata workforce joined the ASU, got organised and fought for, and eventually won, a collective agreement in Melbourne in 2010.
Under sustained pressure led by the ASU, Dnata withdrew their dodgy EBA from Fair Work a day before the matter was to be heard. This was a huge relief for Dnata staff. But we must remain vigilant. Dnata is still bidding for work using the new company based on the Award conditions that are lower than the current Dnata EBA. The union will throw everything at trying to stop the undermining of the existing Dnata workforce. At the same time that Dnata has been trying to get around their current EBAs, those EBAs have come up for re-negotiation. ASU members at Dnata will be determined to win a just outcome in these negotiations.
Now in 2017, Dnata is looking for new ways to cut labour costs in the ground handling sector. Without any discussion with the workforce or the union, Dnata created a new company and tried to sneak a sub-standard EBA through the Fair Work Commission that would have seriously undermined existing EBAs, and wages and conditions of Dnata staff. Worse still, the agreement was voted on by just 2 ’employees’, even though the new company didn’t have any work.
Dnata’s behaviour is yet another example of companies trying to game the system to get around employment laws which are not strong enough to prevent corporate exploitation that will strip wages, conditions and safety.
Our members at Dnata are rightly outraged by their employers’ behaviour and are standing in strong opposition to this attempt to cut standards and undermine existing collective agreements.
this, who will try next?
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If Dnata gets away with
Dnata workers tell their story to Senate Hearing In May, representatives from the ASU in Victoria, together with ASU members and delegates from Dnata, gave evidence at a Senate Committee hearing into Corporate Avoidance of the Fair Work Act in Melbourne. We did this because Dnata’s recent actions in seeking to avoid current wages and conditions and creating a new company, AHSA, are a stark example of how many businesses in Australia are seeking to exploit loopholes in our industrial laws to the detriment of workers. Unfortunately Dnata’s actions have had a negative impact on the morale and job security of everyone across the company, and the Senate Committee was an opportunity for the union and its members to publicly express the injustice and unfairness of what Dnata is doing.
ASU airlines members stand with Dnata workers
It was important for our law makers in the Federal Parliament to hear from Dnata workers first-hand about how the company’s actions have impacted the hard-working staff.
Your ASU delegates spoke straight from the heart about how Dnata’s tactics have impacted on everyone and we are extremely proud of their courage and strong contribution at the hearing.
ASU delegates and officials with Senator Gavin Marshall at the Senate Inquiry into Corporate Avoidance of the Fair Work Act
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Penalty rates worth fighting for
The fight to protect penalty rates has come down to the wire, with the union movement remaining locked in battle with the Federal Government over the 1 July introduction of cuts to the Sunday and public holiday penalty rates of hundreds of thousands of Australians. To summarise developments throughout June:
ASU members are encouraged to call their local Federal MP and Senator, and ask them to vote for Labor’s bill - the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Take Home Pay) Bill 2017.
¢¢ The Fair Work Commission confirmed that penalty rate cuts would be introduced on 1 July, and be phased in over several years – with the full cuts being introduced over three to four years, depending on the industry. ¢¢ The ACTU released a study showing that Australian workers living in urban areas would lose $760 million every year in penalty rates. This equates to $2000 less in disposable income per worker each year. The study comes on top of a previous report that found workers in rural and regional areas would be $667 million worse off. ¢¢ Federal Parliament continued to debate Labor’s bill to kill the penalty rate cuts. Australia’s lowest paid workers cannot afford to have $1.4 billion ripped out of their take home pay. Many workers will now receive a pay cut every year for the next four years. 6
ASU organisers campaigning to protect penalty rates
Tell your local MP and Senator that this decision will affect your vote at the next election. The ASU will not stop the fight for our members – like airport and call centre staff - who keep the country running on Sundays, and deserve to be paid accordingly.
Minimum wage increase barely keeps pace with cost of living
For Australia’s 2.3 million workers on the minimum wage or award wages, the Fair Work Commission’s decision in June to lift Australia’s minimum wage by just 59 cents per hour, or $22.20 per week, was hardly cause for celebration. Whilst a 3.3% increase on Award rates is welcome as it is higher than increases awarded in previous years, it still does not lift low paid workers out of poverty, and falls short of what unions were asking for. When you consider that many of the workers who are impacted by this decision work in cleaning, sales, community, personal services and hospitality, you quickly realise that many of these workers will be subject to a penalty rate cut from the 1st July – it’s a case of giving with one hand and taking with the other.
Almost 60 per cent of minimum wage workers are women, and are typically younger than the workforce as a whole.
National economic data for the year to March shows business in Australia is booming, with profits up 39.7 per cent, while wages growth is a dismal 0.9 per cent. Keeping low wage earners struggling is establishing an underclass of working poor.
The union movement will continue to advocate for a living wage for those on Award minimum rates of pay, and a fair share of the economic prosperity. 7
Budget sting in the tail for women
While the Government accepted pats on the back from many pundits for delivering a Budget with some heart, a closer look has revealed that is not quite the case, particularly for women on low incomes, women with children, and women just out of university. An analysis of the Federal Budget by the National Foundation for Australian Women found that some women will be hit with a marginal tax rate of 100% as a result of Budget measures and other factors. This includes the increase in the Medicare Levy, freezing of Family Tax Benefits payment rates (part A), the changes to repayment of university fees and the impact on marginal tax rates by women paying child care fees. So what does all this mean? The Foundation’s analysis found that as a result of combined Budget measures, a graduate earning $51,000 will have less disposable income than someone earning $32,000.
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No wonder the Government has removed information comparing gender impacts from the Budget papers. At a time of low wage growth and high unemployment and underemployment levels, these policies are going to further exacerbate the financial stress felt by many Australian women, and do nothing to lift productivity and female workforce participation. The ASU will fight this silent war on women at every opportunity we have. You can read the gender analysis of the Federal Budget at: nfaw.org
Industrial round-up
PRIVATE SECTOR
David Leydon, Assistant Secretary 2017 is proving to be yet another very busy year on the Enterprise Bargaining front for the ASU. The Union is negotiating new agreements across a large number of workplaces including Tenix, RACV - RAC, RACV – MCC, Slater & Gordon, Shine Lawyers, Serco, Oxfam, Dogs Victoria, Connect East, Australian Conservation Foundation and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) to name just a few. As always the union has fought hard in the RACV negotiations for the two separate EBAs that cover the Roadside Assistance Centre (RAC) and the Member Contact Centre (MCC).
ASU members stood strong in the MCC negotiations and overwhelmingly rejected the first shocking agreement that management tried to force on them in late 2016. That proposed agreement ripped away many of their long standing terms and conditions of employment. After fighting off those attacks from RACV Management, a new agreement is about to be finalised that not only safeguards all the current conditions, but makes some key additions to the EBA including Union Rights and a Domestic Violence clause.
Tenix Delegates from left to right - Emerson Kitchell, Sarah Haar, Gerrard Cao 9
The Tenix negotiations have been a difficult affair as they have been conducted against the backdrop of the company having to tender to the State Government to maintain its current contract for the enforcement of “on the spot” and traffic camera fines for the Sheriff’s Office. The Union has been working hard to make sure we secure conditions of employment for employees in this time of uncertainty with the new Government contract.
Following several years of strong membership growth at firms like Slater & Gordon, Nowicki Carbone and Maurice Blackburn, the ASU continues our drive to try and improve the working conditions across the legal industry. We now have significant Union membership at Shine Lawyers and are seeking to begin bargaining at that workplace.
AIRLINES
ASU MEMBERS ACROSS AIRLINES – STRONGER TOGETHER Matt Norrey, ASU Lead Organiser There’s been a lot going on in the airline industry in 2017.
Many ASU members across the industry are bargaining for better wages and conditions this year, and some are fighting hard to protect what union members have already won. Whatever is going on in your workplace you can be confident that the ASU will keep fighting to hold employers to account. Unfortunately we are seeing some employers in the industry, such as Dnata, seeking to undermine our collective strength by exploiting loopholes in our industrial laws.
The ASU has long campaigned against split shifts in the industry as we believe it poses a health and safety risk when workers are required to work across an extreme spread of hours to cover split shifts. The ASU and the TWU are challenging a number of provisions of the recently finalised Aerocare EBA, including split shifts, as we believe that there are a number of areas where the proposed EBA for Aerocare ground staff falls below the Award minimum. We believe that Aerocare workers deserve to be treated fairly and receive the same industry standards as others in the industry, and we will work hard to improve the conditions at Aerocare.
Menzies
Aerocare You might have seen some of the media attention that Aerocare has been receiving lately. ABC’s 7.30 program has featured two stories about the working conditions at Aerocare focusing on rostering, split shifts and fatigue.
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The other major player in ground handling sector is Menzies. Menzies has recently commenced bargaining with the ASU. It’s early days in the bargaining process but already there are signs that all the ground handlers are watching events at Dnata closely.
What are the airlines doing?
Those airlines that directly employ their staff to undertake ground handling are few and far between. That’s one of the reasons it’s so important to campaign hard to secure a level playing field and secure jobs across the industry. At Qantas we have a commitment that the airline won’t use any other Qantas owned company to undertake the work of Qantas staff. That’s a really important commitment because in many ways Qantas were the original architect of contracting out work and creating new low cost subsidiaries such as Qantas Ground Services (QGS). At Jetstar we have a similar commitment that no other company in the group can perform our Jetstar members’ work. ASU bargaining at Jetstar is due to commence, and these issues will be on the table again. The ASU negotiating team will work hard to protect jobs and conditions at Jetstar.
Recently the ASU had to fight hard to ensure that Jetstar kept skilled staff engaged on temporary contracts and we were able to convert some fixed term contract staff to permanent. This is a situation that we have to address during bargaining with Jetstar this year. Virgin is also in the midst of enterprise bargaining, and issues around job security and direct employment are front and centre in the negotiations.
Please look out for ASU updates and actions, and show your support to our Dnata members in the coming weeks as they fight to secure their EBA wages and conditions. Because what happens to one can happen to all - and we are all stronger together.
Jetstar Delegates Kate Weaver & Zoran Andric getting ready to bargain this year
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New ACTU Secretary New Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Secretary Sally McManus puts her commitment and passion for working people and the union movement down to three words: Australian Services Union. Sally, who became ACTU Secretary on 15 March, 2017, served the ASU for 22 years before moving to the ACTU in 2015 to take the lead on campaigning and as an ACTU Vice President. On joining the ASU in 1994, Sally was initially sent to organise “non-union” workplaces and industries – the new private health funds, travel agencies, and the then fledgling IT sector and call centres. These greenfields industries were so new in the Australian economy that many were not yet covered by an award. She rose to NSW secretary during a proud career that saw her take part in campaigns with members in Australia’s largest private sector employer Qantas, win the seven year campaign for equal pay for community workers, as well as a battle to stop privatisation with utility workers. “I had the privilege of working alongside members in different industries and facing different challenges and this has shaped me as a union leader,” Sally says. “I will never forget my time at the union. It was a pleasure to work with the members, delegates and staff and it is something I take with me every day.” Sally has hit the ground running since being elected ACTU Secretary, coming out with a bang and proclaiming Australia’s workplace laws are broken and then spearheading a campaign to bring about change.
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A FEW REASONS WHY THE SYSTEM NEEDS TO CHANGE:
¢¢ Corporations and the very rich have become far too powerful and our laws and have not kept up. ¢¢ The tax system favours those who have the most. ¢¢ Fair Work Commission makes decisions that cut the wages and conditions of some of our lowest paid workers. ¢¢ Australians are less secure in their work and living costs are rising. ¢¢ It’s harder than ever to get a pay rise and the protections and rights for working people are not strong enough.
“The rules that made Australia fair are no longer working. Inequality in our country is the worst it has been for 76 years,” she says. “Today, working people are less secure in their work, living costs are rising and the protections and rights afforded to them are just not strong enough – particularly for the growing number now employed in casual or short-term jobs, often working long or unpredictable hours without a paid holiday or sick leave.” Sally says that while working people are grappling with these challenges, big corporations use their power to rewrite the rules in their favor.
ACTU Secretary Sally McManus
“The top one per cent own more wealth than the bottom 70 per cent of Australians combined, underpaying workers is a new business model for too many employers — from fast food multinational chains to celebrity chefs — and 679 of our biggest corporations pay not one cent of tax making it even harder to invest in the health and education systems we need,” she says. “And then the Fair Work Commission makes decisions that cut penalty rates of some of our lowest paid workers. The mechanisms we rely on to improve our living standards are no longer working.”
“The mechanisms we rely on to improve our living standards are no longer working.”
Sally brings the same determination to the ACTU that fueled her past successes; including growing the ASU membership base, successful campaigns in the private, public and community sectors and delivering an 18 to 40 per cent pay increase for community and disability workers. She’s worried that there are two million people either looking for work or more hours in Australia. She deplores the fact that young people, particularly those in regional areas, can’t get a job and opportunities are decreasing. Sally says it will take all unions and all union members working together to build a movement to change the rules to make Australia fair again. She wants ASU members to know they have an important place in the battle to win fairness and equality in Australian workplaces.
“If you are an ASU member, be proud. If you have friends that haven’t signed up, get them on board, too.”
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Victory in the fight to protect Paid Parental Leave!
ASU members front the Senate Inquiry into Paid Parental Leave
One piece of good news for women in the Federal Budget was almost hidden, with the Government finally caving in to overwhelming union and public opposition to cuts to Australia’s modest paid parental leave scheme.
The ASU and our members have fought long and hard to protect the scheme from cuts, and to defend Australian working women from being demonised as double-dippers and frauds. In May, ASU members from airlines, community services and local government appeared before the Senate Inquiry into the Government’s proposed paid parental leave cuts. Together we urged the Senators to oppose the cuts that would give parents less time with their newborn babies. Knowing that it would have a major fight on its hands in getting this unfair policy through the Senate, the Turnbull Government has now sensibly backed away. There was a lot at stake for ASU members.
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The ASU alone has 420 workplace agreements that contain paid parental leave entitlements that were at risk of being undercut. We congratulate the incredible efforts from various parts of the ASU and our partners in other unions and supporting organisations. And we thank you, our members, who signed petitions, wrote emails, filled out surveys to back up our research, called their MPs, marched and appeared at the Senate Committee hearing in February.
When we campaign together, we win!
But we must remain ever vigilant, especially given the Government’s track record. They’ve made it clear that cutting the scheme remains their goal. While we celebrate this victory, we’ll be keeping a close eye on the Government in the event of any future threats to working parents’ entitlements.
Fees
Caption goes here
From 1 July 2017 ASU member fees will increase by a modest 35 cents per week on the current fees. The ASU recognises that the cost of living is a major issue for our members and their families. This is why we strive to keep fee increases to a minimum. We hope that you will continue to support your union through your continued active membership. Your union membership represents one of the best investments you can make to protect and enhance your conditions at work. 2017/2018 ASU Union Fees – effective from 1 July 2017
Weekly Fortnightly Monthly Quarterly Yearly
The modest fee increase will help fund our ongoing campaigns to protect your rights at work, whether that be bargaining for better pay and conditions or assisting you with an individual workplace issue. It will also ensure that the ASU can play our part in the union wide campaign to win fairer laws that restore the balance for all Australian workers.
And don’t forget that your union fees are tax
30 hours p/w or more
Less than 30 hours p/w
Adult
Adult
$11.30 $22.60 $49.00 $146.90 $587.60
$8.95 $17.90 $38.80 $116.35 $465.40
deductable each year.
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Is your super with the best performing sector?
If your superannuation is with a bank owned superannuation fund, you might want to consider recent data released by SuperRatings.
It’s a good idea to seek independent financial advice before making any decisions about your super. Always ask a financial adviser or a bank employee if they are being paid to recommend any products to you. 1 Year %
3 Year %
5 Year %
7 Year %
10 Year %
Industry Super Funds
11.69
8.25
9.85
8.2
5.25
Bank-Owned Super Funds
9.85
6.23
7.75
5.98
3.16
Outperformance
1.84
2.02
2.10
2.22
2.09
Source: SuperRatings’ April 2017 Fund Crediting Rate Survey
It showed that Industry Super Funds outperformed bank owned funds (on average) by 2% over 10 years. This can make an enormous difference to the amount you retire with. Unlike bank owned funds who use their super funds to generate corporate profits, which are returned as dividends to shareholders, industry super funds return all profits to members, and typically have lower fees than bank owned super funds.
When you also consider the average outperformance over time, you could be doing yourself a big favour by switching to an Industry Super Fund.
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Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Consider your own objectives, financial situation and needs before making a decision about superannuation because they are not taken into account in this information. You can find out more information at industrysuper.com.au.
Ask Terry Terry O’Loughlin, Industrial Officer
Make sure you understand your contract of employment Many of our members’ terms of employment are governed by an award and their individual contract of employment, rather than a local enterprise collective agreement. Members commonly contact us about overtime and penalty rates provisions in their contracts. As the Award rates are a legal minimum, members often have pay rates above that minimum rate. However, when members undertook overtime or were required to work outside of normal hours they were informed that their overaward payments cover such situations. In such cases an employer may refer to a term in the contract that identifies that members’ salary is inclusive of overtime and penalty rates. These clauses can be so loosely phrased that a member may not realise their implication. Most awards have a provision for how such arrangements can be entered into, under the clause ‘award flexibility’. This provides the ability for an ‘all inclusive salary’ to cover overtime, penalty rates, and allowances. However the ability to do this in an individual agreement can only be done so under certain conditions. In summary, the pre conditions for an ‘all inclusive salary’ in a contract are: ¢¢ The arrangement has to be genuinely entered into by both parties, ¢¢ The terms to be covered in the ‘rounded up salary’ are clearly identified,
¢¢ The arrangement has to be in writing and signed by both parties, ¢¢ It must detail how the employee is better off overall under the arrangement. If these issues are not addressed, the ASU believes that such arrangements cannot be enforced. However the courts have taken these matters on a case by case basis. A recent decision in the West Australian Industrial Magistrates Court determined that the preconditions for the claim that the overall salary did not cover overtime/ penalty payments as the contract was deficient in providing the detailed arrangements required. The ASU advises members to contact us should they have any concerns about their contract.
Get union advice before you resign The ASU often gets queries from members about resigning or having their employment terminated as a result of experiencing a difficult situation at work. In a number of recent cases, workers have felt that it was in their long term interest to resign, regardless of whether they were treated unfairly. But after resigning, they have pursued an action of unfair dismissal, claiming that their termination of employment was a ‘constructive dismissal’. In these cases, the workers felt they had to resign because of their employer’s actions.
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The claim that a worker was constructively dismissed is a very hard hurdle to overcome as a legal argument, and in most cases it is difficult if it is part of an application for an unfair dismissal. In most cases, for such an argument to succeed, the employer has to be seriously threatening a worker with either physical or mental abuse for the claim to be accepted. Our simple advice to members is to never resign if possible, as it almost always compromises any claim an employee can make against their employer be it an unfair dismissal, unlawful dismissal or bullying complaint.
There are no prerequisites to how many warnings an employee must receive or that the warnings have to be issued under a pre-set formula. When the matter arises under an unfair dismissal case, the issues and the dismissal are usually taken on a case by case basis using the ‘fair go all round’ principle. In a recent decision of the Commission regarding an employee’s poor performance, a Deputy President of the Commission determined that despite a lack of formal warnings, the employee’s dismissal was upheld as fair given all the particulars of the case.
When confronted with a situation where you are feeling pressured to resign or are worried that a termination of employment might compromise your future employment opportunities you need to speak to an ASU official before you make a decision as there are consequences that you might regret later.
Of course there have been many more other decisions where the Commission has determined that the process was not fair and appropriate warnings were not given. Some decisions have even noted that the warning should contain a statement about the potential to have your employment terminated if there is further problems.
What is an unfair dismissal? It’s not a clear cut case
Clearly there are no hard and fast rules around the process for warnings. However workers must always be provided the opportunity to respond to any allegations or given a chance to redress issues regarding performance.
Your rights with respect of warnings and unfair dismissals are not straightforward. Contrary to common belief, workers are not automatically entitled to three formal warnings before they can be dismissed. There are no laws that set in concrete the manner in which an employee can justifiably be dismissed - other than that they have had the opportunity to respond to allegations put to them.
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The Fair Work Ombudsman provides information about unfair dismissals on its website: www.fairwork.gov.au/ ending-employment/unfair-dismissal
Level 2, 116 Queensberry Street Carlton South VIC 3053 PO Box 447, Carlton South VIC 3053 Tel: (03) 9342 3300 Fax: (03) 9342 3399 E-mail: info@asupsvic.org
www.asuvic.org
Lead with us