NATIONAL WAGE CASE DECISION THIS WEEK

This year, union members are calling for a 4.5% increase to the minimum and award wages. Australia's lowest-paid workers will receive $24.94 an hour after the Fair Work Commission decided to lift the minimum wage by 3.5%. About 180,000 people will see their hourly rate increase from $24.10 to $24.94 from July 1 as a result of the ruling by the industrial umpire.

NBN SOD CASE

The case is moving slowly to hearing as technical issues are being resolved. NBN has now filed a Defence denying our claim for overtime. The matter is set down for mediation this week. Our claim seeks overtime payment for the 30minutes at start and end of day.

NBN TOP UP PAY

Nbn has advised of a review of income of Field Engineers to determine if "Top Up" payments are required. We have no other details at all, and cannot confirm the findings. Their letter is below. At this stage we have no reason to disagree.

See the undertakings in the Decision approving the EBA for details. See our CWU web page for a copy.

As part of the Enterprise Agreement transition, nbn is pleased to confirm that the earnings review has been completed for Field Engineers who were fully available for scheduled night work, on-call duty, and overtime between 13 May 2024 and 12 May 2025. This review supports nbn's commitment to a one-time 'top-up' payment, ensuring that eligible Field Engineers are not disadvantaged by the new arrangements. It covers any shortfall between what would have been earned under the previous structure (including the annualised on-call allowance) and actual earnings during the review period.
The outcome was overwhelmingly positive, indicating that the vast majority of Field Engineers are better off under the new arrangement. Specifically, 98.2% of eligible employees earned more than they would have under the previous structure, with only two employees eligible to receive the top-up payment. This result reflects our commitment to ensuring fair and appropriate compensation for the work that Field Engineers perform.
A communication will be sent out to all Field Engineers today, confirming that the earnings review has been completed and sharing the above results. Additionally, each Field Engineer will also receive a personal email from Payroll this week detailing their individual review outcome. If they have any questions about the review, they can reach out to their leader, myself, or People Central.

TZV SUPPORT STAFF EBA

We have served our draft Log of Claims on TZV ahead of the first meeting next Tuesday. TZV has also served us with their Log of Claims. We have a special TZV web page where all the material will be made available to you. See CWU TZV Support EBA Materials We will update the page when (non confidential) material is available.

TZV SUPPORT LOG OF CLAIMS COMMENTS SOUGHT

We received quite a few submissions to add to our log with many about similar topics. Our Committee has taken some time to consolidate all the varied submissions and created a draft log of claims. We now seek any comments and additions if necessary See the CWU TZV Support EBA Materials for the Draft Log of Claims

VENTIA REDUNDANCIES

Ventia has advised of redundancies following two "mobilisations". Extracts from their letter are below. We understand that members have been advised of their individual circumstances. Ventia are aiming to complete the process by 27 June. Please contact us if you need any assistance:

Please see below details of the potential employee impacts in relation to the mobilisation of the Multi- Operator Core Network (MOCN) Optus contract recently awarded to Ventia. This contract is to upgrade the Multi-Operator Core Network for Optus and the work is predominately regional and rural based sites in QLD, NSW, VIC/TAS, SA and WA and is for 1 year.
We have assessed the number of crews required to service the MOCN contract by state and the reduction in work volumes on adjacent contracts. This will result in a reduction of circa 9 13 wages employees in WA and VIC/TAS. There is also a need to have an additional crew in NSW, as such we will offer relocation to any employees who may wish to do so.
As this contract is in regional and remote locations, we will be looking at making a roster change. The workforce currently perform work in metro area's however this work has ended.
Currently, our crews have been operating under the standard Mon-Fri working arrangement. MOCN sites are predominantly in rural and regional areas, therefore ongoing travel and roster flexibility will be required for the duration of the contract which is due to be completed in March 2026. To manage fatigue and reduce travel time we are proposing to implement a 10/4 and 21/7 roster in accordance with the Ventia Telecommunications Field Work Agreement (Clause 21).
Process and communication
Additionally, we also have some employee impacts on the L3 Harris contract. Ventia's client, L3 Harris has significantly cut funding and operations due to works being placed on hold by their client Airservices Australia. This reduction in work is projected to be for at least the next 12 months. A review has been done of the resources required to service these new lower volumes and as a result, the following wages roles are proposed to no longer be required - Field Technician Brisbane Field Technician.

WORKERS RIGHTS UNDER ATTACK

The following report is from The Guardian by author Michael Sainato

Workers' rights across every continent in the world are in a "freefall", according to the 2025 Global Rights Index released by the International Trade Union Confederation, the largest trade union federation in the world. The index noted workers' rights and democracy around the world are often under attack by "far-right politicians and their unelected billionaire backers. Whether it's Donald Trump and Elon Musk in the US or Javier Milei and Eduardo Eurnekian in Argentina, we see the same playbook of unfairness and authoritarianism in action around the world."
In the US, the index cited "the Donald Trump administration has taken a wrecking ball to the collective labour rights of workers and brought anti-union billionaires into the heart of policymaking".
These actions, according to the index, include stripping union protections from 47,000 workers at the Transportation Security Administration, attempting to revoke civil service protections for large swaths of federal employees and firing a member of the National Labor Relations Board, leaving it without a quorum.
Luc Triangle, secretary general of the International Trade Union Confederation, said the report covers events up until March 2025, but these trends have continued to worsen in the US since then.
The Trump administration has also drastically cut staff at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, fired a board member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority and issued an executive order revoking collective bargaining rights for the majority of federal employees.
"In more and more countries, we have elected leaders that once they are elected democratically, they are taking action against democratic values," said Triangle. "The first target of those leaders in many countries is they attack trade human rights and workers' rights, because we are the biggest defenders of democratic values and in that sense also their biggest opponents as largest social movement in the world."
Three out of five global regions saw conditions for workers' rights worsen, including the Americas and Europe hitting their worst scores on the index since it was established in 2014.
Only seven out of 151 nations surveyed by the index had a top-tier rating on workers' rights, down from 18 in 2015.
Workers' access to justice was restricted in 72% of nations surveyed, the worst on record, 87% of countries violated the right to strike and 80% violated the right to collective bargaining.
The worst countries for workers, according to the report, are Bangladesh, Belarus, Ecuador, Egypt, Eswatini, Myanmar, Nigeria, the Philippines, Tunisia and Turkey.
Only three countries, Australia, Mexico and Oman, saw their ratings improve from 2024.
Triangle warned that the billionaire backers of these politicians have come out of the shadows and only expanded their wealth and control over important parts of society, in a "coup" by billionaires of democratic institutions globally that are driving these deteriorating conditions for workers' rights.
"In the last four or five years with Covid and increased inflation, people lost purchasing power and that's the breeding ground for extremist parties to get voters to vote for extremist parties, which actually don't offer any solution for the working people," said Triangle.
The federation of unions is pushing a campaign for democracy that delivers in opposition to the framework model used by Donald Trump and Elon Musk in the US, and other billionaires and far-right political leaders around the world.
"The five richest people in the world more than doubled their wealth over the last five years, while 60% of the population of the world got poorer. We are investing nearly US$3tn as a world into arms and into weapons and there is unfair taxation. So if we want to find the money for delivering to working people to what they really need good wages, more jobs, rights, social protections it's a matter of political choice."