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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (8 August) . . Page.. 2568 ..
MR SPEAKER (continuing):
Doing this was not watering down the enterprise bargain-it was just changing it.
The Government, particularly the Minister for Industrial Relations, Wayne Berry, had wanted to keep enterprise bargaining centralised to stop some workplaces giving up more than others in return for wage rises. The result has been months of negotiation and some frustration.
The Transport Workers' Union pulled out of the central bargaining negotiations saying it wanted its own deal. That deal, which will save ACTION $6.5 million, was ratified by the Minister for Urban Services, Terry Connolly, recently. It is understood Mr Berry was unhappy, and felt this had undermined the negotiations for the central agreement.
According to Ms Sheehan, the TWU agreement had the potential to create a "wage free-for-all" as all unions tried to strike their own bargain. "In a tricky budget situation, that would lead to job losses," she said.
Ms Garvan said the proposed minimal agreement was an attempt to save the centralised enterprise bargaining framework from falling apart. It would also ensure "some kind of equity" between unions.
The secretary of the Automotive, Food, Metals and Engineering Union, Des Heaney, said the TWU agreement had undermined the whole centralised process. He would look at Ms Sheehan's proposal, but thought a "minimal" approach was dangerous. He warned that the AFMEU would not be part of an agreement which did not include bench marking studies and performance indicators. Agency-by-agency bargaining would only make parts of the service more efficient, not the whole.
Mr Berry would not comment yesterday, saying the new proposal was under negotiation at the official level.
Unions bicker over numbers
ACT Government services could face increasing disruptions starting today, after a dispute between two unions escalated, leading to one union picketing members of another.
An organiser for the Australian Workers' Union, Glen Castles, said yesterday that a dispute which began over union membership in January had been too slow to be resolved, and that his members would begin picketing members of rival union, the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union, today at the Kambah City Parks depot.
The dispute began when about 30 former CFMEU members-including one former organiser for the union-joined the AWU. Most CFMEU members returned to the fold, but three stayed in the new union. Two plant operators were not allowed to start work.
The dispute went to the Industrial Relations Commission, where the CFMEU argued that the work done by the operators was not covered by AWU awards. In the meantime, the workers were redeployed within City Parks at no loss of pay. A decision handed down in the Commission yesterday indicated that AWU had coverage for the workers to continue.
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