The ASU’s majority support application was heard by the Fair Work Commission on Friday 6th of November.
The ASU had collected sufficient signatures to demonstrate that a strong majority of employees based in Melbourne wanted the ASU to bargain for an Enterprise Agreement at Birdlife Australia. However, we were only able to obtain a bare majority of signatures across the entire organisation.
For this reason, and also in consideration of the passage of time since some of the signatures were collected, the Commission expressed some hesitance that an order to initiate bargaining should be made.
The ASU argued that the commission should order in view of the intentions of employees at Birdlife. We therefore suggested that the commission order a Vote of all employees. That way we could be certain about whether a majority of employees do or do not desire an Enterprise Agreement.
Outcome
The Commission has ordered that a Ballot of all employees proposed to be covered by the Agreement be held prior to Christmas. This ballot will be conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission.
What next
We will need to campaign amongst employees to be sure the Vote for an Agreement “gets up.” ASU members must get out into the workplace and talk to colleagues about the benefits of an EBA!
Meeting of Members and Employees
The ASU will hold a meeting of Employees and ASU Members at Birdlife Australia’s Melbourne Office on Tuesday 17th of November at 12:30pm. At the meeting we will again talk about the benefits of an EBA, take feedback and answer questions. We will also discuss what can be done to be sure that the ballot is successful.
Should you have any concerns or queries please don’t hesitate to contact ASU Organiser for Birdlife, Andy Lewis on 0409 778 890.