ARGE EBA CAMPAIGN NEWSLETTER No. 13

EBA - IN PRINCIPLE AGREEMENT ARGE EMPLOYEES TO VOTE

At a telephone conference of branch and National Officials held with ARG representatives on Friday 19 March "in principle" agreement to an EBA to cover all ARG employees was reached. The negotiations, the longest and most difficult ever commenced a year ago.

The last sticking point has been the introduction of D.O.O. working, (which locations and which trains it would apply) and the consultative procedures to apply. This has been a red hot issue at a number of locations including Picton and Kwinana. Train Crews at Picton in mid December stopped work over D.O.O. and meetings of concerned members have taken place at other depots. Many negotiating sessions at local level involving train crew, job reps and management have taken place over the last two months to progress this issue. The "in principle" agreement now contains very detailed provisions for D.O.O. which includes:

• Details of maximum shift lengths based on specific operational circumstances.
  
• Details on DOO operations already in place with agreed shift lengths.
  
• Details of agreed specific DOO operations with shift lengths in excess of 8 hours that are proposed for future implementation.
  
• A process for implementing DOO operations in excess of 8 hours that are not specified at the commencement of this agreement.
  

This includes a 3 stage case by case consultation process which includes as a last resort mediation or arbitration.

Specific provisions have been included covering the Avon to Kwinana grain services and the Picton Alcoa and caustic services and Worsley single product trains.

Next Steps - Full Consultation and Postal Ballot of all Employees

The EBA is a lengthy and comprehensive document consisting of 8 parts covering 47 clauses together with 5 appendices. In recent years industrial agreements have been skeleton documents which have not set out in detail the full range of wages and conditions.

As a first step a day long meeting of senior job representatives and management will be held in Perth within the next 2 or 3 weeks to ensure there is a common understanding of the many changes to wages and conditions which are included in the EBA. (At the completion of the WORKSHOP, the document EBA will be forwarded to each workplace)

As a second step the RTBU and ARG representatives will undertake consultative workplace meetings at all ARG locations to ensure a comprehensive understanding and answer employees questions.

Finally, after detailed system wide consultation a postal ballot of employees will be conducted by the Electoral Commission.

It's your EBA, negotiated by job reps and RTBU Officials.

MAKE SURE YOU ATTEND JOB ME