I write to give you an update on our efforts to start some meaningful discussions with management around stress levels in the MCC and how these matters affect your day to day working conditions of employment.
As you will recall from recent email newsletters to you from the Union we conducted a widespread survey of the MCC regarding Stress.
The issuing of this survey came about because the Union was starting to receive a number of queries and complaints from RACV employees about these issues.
The results of the survey were very telling and conclusive.
MCC employees felt they were stressed or under pressure in the workplace.
Much of this pressure was around things like KPIs, stats, treatment from managers, excessive monitoring.
The results of this stress in many cases plays out in the performance measures of staff and the KPIs you are required to meet in your workplace.
This then affects things like your overall performance outcome and, ultimately, your Mercer score and wage outcome.
With all of that in mind the Union wrote to RACV management on 25 June 2014, seeking a meeting to discuss and work through some solutions to these matters.
This was a perfectly reasonable request one would have thought.
Management responded to the Union on 26 June rejecting our request for a meeting.
They attempted to point out that employees can go to their respective direct managers or HR managers if they have any issues.
This is exactly what some people have identified as the problem in the first place. How do you go and raise an issue about your KPIs or the poor treatment directed at you with the manager that may be responsible for the problem in the first place?
Some people have also indicated that in some cases they have no faith in the wider HR process. This is why people have contacted the Union for help.
This is also why the Union sought to meet with management to deal with these matters.
Following RACV management rejecting our request for a meeting the Union had no choice but to notify a dispute to the Fair Work Commission. As we advised in our email to members we did this late last week.
We are currently waiting for a hearing to be scheduled. This may take 2 to 4 weeks depending on the workload of the Commission.
In the meantime, yesterday your senior RACV management wrote to the ASU in surprised outrage that we had dared to write to the Commission seeking a hearing about this matter.
They even went as far as telling us that we don’t have a case and that they will decline to participate in any Conference at the Fair Work Commission.
Can you believe that???
Despite what many Union members / RACV employees have said about the many problems relating to stress and unfair treatment in the MCC your managers not only say they wont meet to try and deal with it in a reasonable way now they also say they wont even come to a Fair Work Commission hearing about the matter.
This clearly begs the question why?
Surely management care enough about their valued employees to want to resolve issues in the workplace important to those employees.
This management behaviour is outrageous.
For our part the Union will not shy away from trying to help employees who have legitimate concerns and matters they want resolved in their workplace.
Ultimately all of these issues have a direct effect on your yearly outcome and wage review in accordance with the system contained in your workplace EBA.
When the Fair Work Commission hearing is eventually scheduled the Union will be there in a positive and cooperative way with a view to working to resolve these matters.
Surely it’s not too much to expect that RACV management might want to do the same. Is it?
Time will tell.
Stay tuned for further updates in the days ahead.
In the meantime stay united – it’s your greatest strength.