ARTC Update – Agreement Approval Process

The approval process in the Commission continues to progress. Unfortunately ARTC have still not passed on the pay increase and continue to hold the union and its employees to ransom until it gets its Agreement approved.

On 14 April 2020, the RTBU filed submissions with the Commission stating not once, but twice:

“The RTBU does not oppose the approval of the proposed Agreement.”

And

“As the RTBU advised the Commission on 27 March 2020, it does not oppose the approval of the Agreement.”

Further, to assist the process, the RTBU suggested several ways in which ARTC could accelerate the process and have its Agreement approved by the Commission. The concerns that the RTBU have raised involve the Agreement not meeting the requirements it needs to under the Fair Work Act. These can be fixed by ARTC simply undertaking to ensure that the Agreement is applied lawfully.  Unfortunately, instead of cooperating, ARTC engaged its expensive lawyer to continue the argument around the RTBU’s position.

In its email to you today, ARTC stated that “the ASU is no longer pursuing their concerns for the Agreement”. This is false – the ASU have told us that they have not withdrawn their concerns and continue to rely on the documents that it has filed in the Commission to date.

This is false – the ASU have told us that they have not withdrawn their concerns and continue to rely on the documents that they have filed in the Commission to date.

Once again, it is ARTC that continues to withhold your pay increase. There is absolutely nothing to stop them delivering the pay increase tomorrow. We continue to call on ARTC to do the right thing.