ENTERPRISE BARGAINING YOUR CHANCE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
“ … improvements to your working conditions correlate directly with the level of engagement in the enterprise bargaining process.
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In mid-October public sector workers covered by the South Australian Modern Public Sector Enterprise Agreement (Salaried) 2017 (SAMPSEAS) received the last of three salary increases. This agreement has a nominal expiry date of January 20, 2020, meaning the PSA will soon start negotiations with the state government for a new enterprise agreement. While salary increases are an important aspect of any negotiation – we achieved above CPI increases for the majority of members – many big wins in the SAMPSEAS, and the ones we will be striving to consolidate in the next agreement, relate to members’ working conditions, entitlements, and job security. To achieve the current enterprise agreement, the PSA started engaging with members at the beginning of 2016. More than 400 member meetings were held and a survey designed to ensure member-wide consultation on our bargaining position received nearly 2000 responses. There is no question that substantial member involvement in developing the draft claim led directly to an agreement that significantly improved existing conditions and saw the introduction of important new clauses that benefit all PSA members.
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What you told us in 2016 Member-wide consultation in the lead up to bargaining told the PSA there were five key areas that needed addressing: job protection, wages and conditions, workload, classification, and standardisation. In all areas, the PSA campaign for a new agreement led to significant improvements. However, since the Agreement was signed, we have seen a new government come to power, a government intent on slashing public sector budgets and privatising services. With this in mind, our campaign for a new enterprise agreement will focus on consolidating these wins and making improvements where required. Job Protection For the first time, PSA members achieved a clause confirming ongoing employment as the primary form of employment in the
Public Sector Review Magazine | DECEMBER 2019
public sector. At a time when work is becoming more precarious for a significant section of the population, the inclusion of this clause in the SAMPSEAS was vital. Workers need stable jobs they can rely on, and the PSA has since used this clause to achieve conversions to permanency for a significant number of members. The Agreement contains another new clause that provides ongoing employment for graduates and trainees, subject to satisfactory completion of their program. A substantial advancement, and one that has become crucial in the current environment of budget cuts and restructures, is the inclusion in the Agreement of a stand-alone appendix enshrining new clauses on redeployment, retraining and redundancy that are no longer reliant on a Commissioner’s Determination.
