Newcastle EA – In-principle agreement reached

The Newcastle EA was taken to members to vote on after we reached an in-principle agreement with KDH last Wednesday.

The RTBU was successful in its request for a 7 per cent increase over two years, effective from November 2022 and November 2023. Drivers will also be back-paid a three percent rise from November 2021.

An extra ten conditions were also inserted into the Enterprise Agreement without any trade off for members. 

Members were sent a bulletin yesterday regarding KDH’s offer. It’s important to go over the offer with a fine-toothed comb, so the Industrial Officer involved in negotiations, Lizanne Bennett, will be running through it with a critical eye. 

However, Lizanne is currently recovering from major surgery and is scheduled to return on July 11th. When she does, we estimate it will take her about one week to go over the offer. At the time of writing, the union believes this process will be complete by the week ending on 15th July.

It’s important to note that this does not negatively impact anything. It just means it will take a little bit longer to put the offer up to a vote, but the benefit of having Lizanne examine it means that we can ensure additional conditions have been included and no existing conditions have been altered.

We appreciate your patience as we await Lizanne’s healthy return.