ARTC NSW Infrastructure Enterprise Agreement Negotiations 2016 – Update #4

Bulletin 51 – 2016

TO:      All RTBU Members: ARTC Infrastructure Maintenance:

On Monday, 28^th November 2016 and Tuesday, 29^th November 2016, your RTBU negotiations committee met at the RTBU Head office in Sydney to discuss the review of ARTC’s competency based classification structure and the claim of automatic progression.

The point of this review was to identify particular competencies that are effecting progression of members around the network. This was a hot ticket item from the survey, with some members reporting that they have been stuck on Level 2 since 2008 due to particular ‘Road Block’ competencies.

Members are receiving all the qualifications, bar one, needed for progression. This is halting their progression and there is nothing in the current enterprise agreement that protects members from this situation or forces ARTC to provide this training and assessment in a timely manner.

With the above in mind, the negotiations committee reviewed the classification structure and formed a proposal which would see all members receiving a national qualification in Cert II Rail Infrastructure and an automatic progression to Level 3 within 24 months from the start of their employment with ARTC. We have also proposed that anything above a Level 3 requires a national qualification in Cert III Rail Infrastructure which would also effectively progress that individual to Level 4, however, this is at ARTC’s discretion.

These proposals were presented to ARTC at the meeting held on Tuesday, 6^th December 2016. After a lengthy discussion ARTC had some questions in particular with competencies that we asked to be removed from streams within their classification. A lot of the competencies that we proposed to be removed were either road blocks to progression, elective units that were not core to a national qualification or were irrelevant to the stream they were attached to.

ARTC have taken our proposals away and will be providing a response in our next meeting.

Another item that was of particular focus was the claim that they would like to review the rostering clause within the current agreement. On the 15^th November 2016, the RTBU negotiations committee asked ARTC to provide detail as to what they wanted to review so we could inform the members and provide a response.

ARTC commented on their proposal but full details have not been presented as of yet as to how the changes to the clause would look. These comments were to remove a section within sub-clause 2.6.3 on page 16 of the current agreement.

This particular section places’ a limit on the maximum number of night and afternoon shifts ARTC can roster their employees in a 28 day period. The removal of this section gives ARTC the power to effectively roster you on permanent night and/or afternoon shifts for as long as they like.

Your representatives did not accept this and are waiting for ARTC to provide further information on the claim.

As the Christmas break is upon us, ARTC have proposed that due to the amount of information they need to consider and the fact that various departments shut down over this period, the next meeting should be held in the New Year on the 10^th January 2017 as this will allow them to provide extensive feedback after discussing the proposals with their management team.

The RTBU negotiation committee accepted this position and asked ARTC to provide in the interim, if possible, any further feedback and responses to your other claims.

We would like to wish all RTBU members and their families a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and look forward to continuing your negotiations in 2017.