Region 6 Enterprise Bargaining Update

As you might recall, after the suspension of strike action last month and the great win we achieved with back pay, the RTBU and TWU committed to negotiate with Transit Systems in good faith during the past few weeks. This bulletin provides a short update on where negotiations have got to.

In recent weeks, there has been some further progress in bargaining which includes some strong wins for Region 6 drivers that have helped move closer to ‘Same Job Same Pay’. Transit Systems has now agreed to grandfather most of the conditions in the STA Award for you while extending some of these to 900 drivers. Some of the STA Award clauses it has agreed to extend to all drivers include ability to job share, provisions for attending court, acting out of classification, and meal breaks.

While this is still far from ‘Same Job Same Pay’ – it is genuine progress and is an improvement on what we’ve heard from the Transit Systems for the past year. In addition to this the company has agreed-in-principle to providing the following in a future agreement:
• WPI Catchall Clause (meaning pay increases cannot be less than WPI) for all drivers
• Additional 1% Super contributions above compulsory minimum guarantee for all drivers
• Common expiry for next agreement (2026 – placing Region 6 with rest of the industry)
• Travel time payments when starting/finish outside depots (extending to 900 drivers)
• 25% casual loading for all drivers (lifting legacy drivers up from 20%)
• Employee weight policy to be removed from the EA for all drivers

While this progress is important, we still have a long way to go before ensuring Same Job/ Same Pay. Major items are yet to be resolved including rostering parity, equalising pay rates and shift penalties, limiting broken spreads to 12 hours and providing access to a range of other important rights and conditions.

Where to Next
Delegates from both unions held depot meetings earlier this week to explain the above in more detail along with the next steps the unions will be taking in the upcoming weeks. Be assured that as events unfold through these negotiations, we will keep you informed through depot meetings and EA bulletin updates. We encourage all members to attend these depot EA update meetings. Keep an eye on the union notice board for dates and times. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your local delegate

What can YOU do?
• Attend Workplace Depot Meetings
• Get Ready to take actions
• Advise other members and workers of what is happening
• Contact your delegate with your comments and concerns.

It is only in numbers and UNITY that we have power for CHANGE.