ARTC Update 5: ARTC wastes the time of employees and unions – Scope order filed with FWC

Dear members,

The Combined Unions met with ARTC again today to continue negotiations for a new enterprise agreement.

Unfortunately, today ARTC’s strategy became abundantly clear. ARTC never intended to listen to the issues important to members. The intention was always to ignore your concerns and roll over the agreement with a small pay rise.

It is shameful that ARTC decided to embark on a process which wasted the time of members and delegates. The Unions put a log with 72 claims important to all ARTC members,  almost every claim received a NO response. There has been next to no movement from ARTC on any issues raised.

It’s a sad situation that everyone has been put in.

ARTC put the first copy of a draft enterprise agreement to the Unions last Friday, 13 September 2019. The Unions attempted to respond to the terms of the draft agreement at the meeting today and were denied an opportunity to do so. ARTC said they only wanted to hear a response to their offer and were not interested in anything else.

At the start of today’s meeting, the Unions asked ARTC whether they were there to negotiate members claims or whether they were just there to tick a box, so they could send their agreement out for a vote. ARTC evaded the question on several occasions and strung your representatives along in the pretence that they were negotiating. ARTC waited to the end of the meeting then announced they intend on sending their document out for a vote and would start the process this week.

It is important to remember that the document is entirely the creation of ARTC and that all employee concerns have been ignored.

Yesterday, we filed an application with the Fair Work Commission for an order that the scope of the Agreement be split in two. If successful, this means that Operational workers and Office workers will have their own separate enterprise agreements that deal with  conditions of employment specific to each group.

ARTC are ignoring our scope application and are pushing ahead to try and ram their agreement through regardless of any employee concerns. The Unions will be asking the Fair Work Commission to stop ARTC from doing so until the case is determined.

Tonight, the RTBU sent a letter to ARTC about their conduct in not allowing the Unions the chance to respond to each part of the proposed draft agreement. The right to respond is a fundamental right of any worker in the bargaining process. ARTC’s actions in this respect are disgraceful and need to be called out.

We urge all members to  respectfully, tell your leader how dissatisfied you are with how ARTC has conducted itself and how important it is that your issues are addressed. ARTC needs to hear your concerns load and clear.

We will send out further information regarding ARTC’s proposed vote once we have further detail.

Are you Informed? Get Involved.

It’s time to get involved at ARTC to get a better outcome in your EA. talk to your delegates, talk to your colleagues, encourage them to Join the Union  It’s time to get the message out there. With strong member involvement we can make a change for the better.