On 16 April 2014, a further meeting was held between Management, Employee Representatives and ASU officials about negotiations for the Multi Enterprise Agreement.
We have begun working through the Management proposed agreement to identify where we have agreement and where there may be conflict that will require further discussion.
The areas identified where there is a conflict of opinion, include;
The ASU being a named party and signatory to the Agreement
Management indicated that they do not support the ASU being a party to the Agreement.
This may sound like a bit of a technical point, but it is important the ASU is covered by the Agreement as it enables the ASU to take legal action to enforce the terms of the agreement. In the unlikely event that something goes wrong with your employment at TWS, you want to ensure that the ASU can take action to enforce your rights under the Agreement.
Casual conversion clause after 6 month
This is an issue that has been flagged as an area of conflict between Management and the ASU but we are yet to have any significant discussions. The ASU believes this is an important provision that protects employees from unfair terms of employment. Casual employees are a vulnerable group of employees who lack many legal protections, including termination rights, unfair dismissal rights, leave entitlements and more.
The ASU recognises that it may be necessary to employ casuals to undertake a short term project or fill a staff shortage for a short period. However if they are employed for a longer period, they should be entitled to same rights as all other employees. Casuals who make a long term commitment to TWS, are deserving of the same commitment from the organisation. Our claim proposes that after 6 months work as a casual, they should be offered the opportunity to convert to permanent employment.