TAX DEDUCTIONS - UNION DUES

As the end of the financial year approaches, tax time is now upon us. If paying by lump sum, it is a good time to pay your union dues - as they are fully deductable. These must be paid by30 June.

TELSTRA EBA VOTE COMING

Negotiations will be completed this week. Telstra has rejected almost all of our extensive log of claims. We have reported in previous Bulletins the main features. The survey we conducted (reported last week), and subsequent responses, indicated no change to the negative sentiment. Some 80% clearly rejected the offer. Others were qualified.
Telstra is expected to walk away this week and go thru the steps to have the proposed EBA approved. This means that you will get a look at the EBA for a week, then get a week to vote on it.

TELSTRA EBA - THE UNION POSITIONS

Our T&S Branch Committee of Management will meet Tuesday to determine our formal position. We will report next week. Our position must reflect our members' position. It is clear from the survey that we will not support a YES vote to adopt the EBA.
Our Union nationally will also determine its position later this week. As will the CPSU and Professionals Australia.
While we will communicate this to Telstra, we do not expect Telstra to depart from their timetable.
The EBA if adopted does not come into force until 1 Oct. (just over 3 months away).

TELSTRA EBA - WHAT ARE THE ISSUES

Some of the common issues raised in the survey were:
No catch-up for the high inflation during the current EBA - 4% is not acceptable as it seals a real and significant pay cut.
Job Family Rating 3 (ME) must get a guarantee of the full pay rises, not discounted
The forced annual and long service leave provisions are unfair.
Many reasonable claims in the log rejected by Telstra
Another issue that has not seen much exposure is a provision to amend the redundancy benefits. While this appears to only affect Telstra Purple, we are worried about later exploitation of this by Telstra.

NBN FE - SOD AND ON CALL ISSUES

We are continuing to collect data on start of day and end of day work and payment. If you are undertaking the SOD and ROD practice, we need your data and matching pay slips.

000VICTORIA BARGAINING COMPLETE

When we wrote last weeks Bulletin, bargaining was at a critical point. Then there was a breakthrough. We sent this report this week:
CWU, VAU, UFU and UWU (the Unions) have unanimously agreed to resolve the outstanding issues with 000Vic and the Enterprise Agreement. On 29 June 2024, the Unions communicated to Julius Roe our position that we will
collectively support an in-principle agreement and call for a yes vote if:
1. The ATLs and TLs who have currently got one year or more of service move to the one-year service mark in the new classification structure in six months. Then those who have two or more years of service move to the two-year service mark in twelve months.
2. The operative date for the new classification structure increases is 30 April 2024 rather than the date of the agreement coming into operation.

000 VIC are prepared to accept the Unions position subject to:
1. The in-principle agreement and heads of agreement of 3 April 2024 is reaffirmed.
2. No industrial action is in place or proposed.
3. The Unions are committed to finalising the drafting by a revised agreed date of 28 June 2024 (in lieu of the previously agreed deadline of 30 April).
4. The Unions will be supportive of the approval of the agreement in a ballot.

Please be advised that the uniform ban will be lifted from Thursday 20 June 2024.

Next steps: Upon completion of drafting, the Enterprise Agreement will need final approval from Government, it will then be voted on by all Employees, then filed for certification at the Fair Work Commission.

UNIONS NSW - HOW MUCH OVERTIME ARE YOU DOING EACH YEAR?

Today we released the first large scale survey-based report into the hours of overtime done by over 5,000 NSW workers and the results will shock you.