Busways EA update

We find ourselves in a new phase of our ongoing battle for equality in the Busways workplace. Recent meetings with the Transport Minister and Premier have revealed that while they express a desire to resolve the issues in Region 7, they claim to be unable to do so. TfNSW has provided what appears to be a water-tight reason, stating that the contract prevents them from taking action. Once again, the consequences of privatisation leave us at a disadvantage, with the responsible agency able to say, “We’d really like to help, but…”.

It is not good enough. Labor made commitments to our members and the community and they need to keep them, even if it means tearing the contracts.

As usual, it falls upon the union to find the best solution we can to this mess. In our lobbying efforts with the government, given they’re not going to do the right thing by our members in Regin 7 we have shifted our focus to advocating for a return to a government operator.  

The company has also applied to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to have our Enterprise Agreement conciliated, which is the first step towards potential arbitration. Arbitration involves presenting arguments for each clause to an FWC representative, who then makes the final decision. As a union, we generally try to avoid this scenario, as it takes bargaining power away from the workers. However, in this case, it seems unavoidable. 

We are currently trying to get the edeal that was done in Region 6. This would stop two-rosters and bring everything attached to the rosters up to the ex-STA level. Examples of this is shift length, penalties, standing time, wages, etc. The focus is on first making sure that what workers earn day to day is the same.

Once that is done then we’ll be looking at things like differences in sick leave, annual leave, long service leave etc. It is not going to be possible to get everything done in one hit, so like in Region 6 we’ll have to do it across a period of time but we WILL be getting that done.

It is important to note that during the arbitration process, we are prohibited from taking industrial action. Due to the complexities of bargaining for separate workgroups under one EA when one group is still on a valid EA, industrial action has not been a viable option thus far. While we were exploring a few other directions, the conciliation application has now locked us into this path. 
 
We’ve had one meeting so far with the FWC and the company where we put this forward as the minimum we could accept; we’ve seen the damage done to members and their families by a two roster system and it has to be avoided at all costs.

If the company comes to the next meeting later this month and says they can’t do this, then we go to arbitration and roll the dice on everything. Lawyers will be running that argument on our behalf if it happens.

We will report back to members after the next meeting.