UPDATE: ARTC EA Negotiations and the New Workplace Bargaining Policy

Bulletin 17/2018

To: All ARTC NSW Infrastructure Members,

Throughout February 2018 the RTBU conducted a state wide depot tour of ARTC and spoke to all members present at these discussions about the current status of the Enterprise Agreement (EA) negotiations and the changes to the Workplace Bargaining Policy (the Policy).

Unfortunately this time around we were unable to get to Broken Hill and Gunnedah. We are currently scheduling a date and time where we can either revisit these locations or conduct an RTBU member phone hook up to hold these discussions.

It was made explicitly clear by all RTBU members around the state that the current offer from ARTC management is unacceptable and will not be voted up in its current format, you also made it explicitly clear that you were willing to reignite your industrial action campaign in an attempt to achieve a better deal as this negotiation has been going on for far too long.

The RTBU spoke with ARTC management last week after the completion of the depot tour in an effort to schedule the next EA negotiation meeting as soon as possible.

ARTC informed the RTBU that due to the changes within the Policy in regards to how it relates to Government Business Enterprises (GBE’s – of which ARTC is one), they need some more time to understand the full extent of their obligations under the new Policy. Particularly if these changes allow ARTC to approach the EA negotiation with a new direction, which all RTBU members around the state are hoping is a revised offer that improves on what has previously been offered by ARTC management.

The 2015 Policy placed a restriction on ARTC in terms of what they could offer without prior approval from the Australian Public Service Commissioner (APS) and the Government.

It is the belief of the RTBU that this new policy has removed this restriction on GBE’s which allows ARTC to offer above and beyond what the policy provides without needing to seek approval from the APS Commissioner or the Government.

The next EA negotiation meeting is to be scheduled for the end of March 2018, where your RTBU negotiating team is expecting ARTC’s position on how this new Policy applies to them and whether or not a new and improved offer will be presented.

As soon as this meeting has been scheduled, we will notify all RTBU Infrastructure Members in ARTC immediately, we will also send a further bulletin once the meeting has been completed with all the information provided by ARTC.