ROLE OF THE SUPPORT PERSON

In most circumstances, you have a right to a support person when attending a meeting with your employer. The role of the support person is an important one. Your support person can:
* Convene with you before, during and after the meeting.
* Call for a break during the meeting.
* Provide advice or assistance to you.
* Be a sounding board for you to discuss your ideas.
* Ask questions and put facts forward
In practice employers try to restrict (carefully worded) the support role to one of observing only.
We are very experienced in these matters. Overall, we would be involved in one to two meetings per week.
You are not alone when you are a union member.

MEMBERSHIP FEES

We advise that our Committee of Management has approved an annual fee increase to take effect from April. That is a year since the last increase. We have various rates and the increases are generally about 60 cents/week. For those on our lowest rates, the increase is only 20 cents/week.

OPTICAL FIBRE - TELSTRA

I have prepared a summary of each member's claim for submission to Telstra. We are awaiting responses from other Branches before proceeding. We remind members that this will take time, particularly if it needs to go to Court. As any delay can be compensated with money, this cannot be classified as an urgent mater. As we did in the successful first case, we would seek up to 6 years backpay where appropriate, including interest on the backpay.

NBN REVIEWS

With the holiday season behind us, we are seeking meetings to achieve the classification review in NBN. The complexity over rest periods after overtime is also a priority mater. We will advise on progress.

AUS POST FEATURES IN UNFAIR DISMISSAL CASE

Unfair Dismissal applications must be lodged within 21 days. This provision is strictly applied and only very exceptional circumstances will be accepted if out of time. In this case, the Applicant was granted more time to lodge his Application. We thought that you be interested in the extract from the Decision:

Mr Bond handwrote his unfair dismissal application and posted it to the Commission's Brisbane office via express post. The application form is dated 23 September 2025. Postal tracking information included with the envelope indicates that the envelope was received by Australia Post in Mermaid Beach on 26 September 2025. The envelope then arrived at the Commission's post office box in Brisbane at 4:45am on 29 September 2025. The envelope was not delivered by Australia Post to the Commission's Brisbane office until 30 September 2025, despite the Commission paying for a daily delivery service.
I have made enquiries as to why the envelope might not have been delivered on 29 September 2025. I have been reliably informed that Australia Post considers the following as possible explanations for why the delivery was not made to the Commission offices on 29 September 2025: (a) The driver collected the mail ,but the letter may have slipped behind other items and was overlooked on that day; o r(b) A driver may not have been available that day to collect mail from the post office box; or (c) Staffing shortages at the facility during that period may have impacted mail processing.
Upon the envelope being delivered to the Commission's Brisbane office on 30 September 2025 it was processed by the Commission and entered into the Commission's file management system.
In the application form, in response to a question asking whether the application is being made within 21 days of the dismissal taking effect, Mr Bond responded "yes" but noted that the application may be a "day late due to posting"