Industrial disputes & news - 9 October 2024
ACT doctors; Brockman Engineering; Altrad; WA public health workers; Victoria University; CFMEU; VicPol; HWU; ETEX
ASMOF ACT - ACT Doctors
Doctors in Canberra’s hospitals escalated their industrial action with a 1 hour stopwork action last Thursday (3/10). Doctors have been undertaking industrial action since 23 September. Initial bans on taking phone calls outside of rostered hours and some administrative and promotional duties have now spread to include refusing to attend some non-clinical meetings. Doctors voted down the ACT government’s most recent pay offer, and are fighting for a better deal. ASMOF President Dr Jeffrey Looi said the strike was having a good response, with many doctors joining the union to participate. It is expected further work bans will be added if the government doesn’t make a better offer.
AMWU Victoria - Brockman Engineering
Workers at Brockman Engineering in Geelong kicked off industrial action on Friday (4/10) with a 12 hour stoppage and indefinite bans on overtime and call-ins. The EBA expired in June.
NTEU - Victoria University
NTEU members at Victoria University have commenced another round of workbans this week, including a 1 day teaching ban scheduled for Thursday (10/10). The 2 week bans had originally been slated to commence last Wednesday (2/10) and included bans on teaching and student consultation for academic staff and a ban on meetings with managers for both academic staff and professional staff. However, the bargaining team received a confidential offer from VU Management, along with a request to suspend industrial action immediately prior to a member meeting on 1 October. The offer, while not perfect, prompted members to vote to delay bans until Monday 7 October as an act of good faith, and the NTEU committed to meeting with VU on Wednesday and Thursday to attempt to “bridge the gap on academic workloads”. It’s understood that despite this, VU made an application to the FWC late last Wednesday to have the NTEU’s industrial action suspended under s424 of the Fair Work Act claiming the teaching bans would endanger the “welfare” of students. The NTEU withdrew the 2 weeks of teaching bans, but the other bans commenced and will continue as planned. Seems like more shitty behaviour from the bosses at VU, and a complete lack of acknowledgement that university working conditions are students’ learning conditions.
Offshore Alliance - Altrad
Offshore Alliance members employed by Altrad on Chevron’s Gorgon and Wheatstone offshore gas projects will commence industrial action on Thursday (10/10). Altrad and the Offshore Alliance have been in tense negotiations for 6 months trying to strike an EBA that covers all Chevron facilities. The Offshore Alliance says members are “simply seeking alignment with the conditions currently paid by other contractors at similar facilities.”
CFMEU - MBA/ACA/AiGroup/CCF
It was revealed this week that a coalition of bosses have written to Minister Murray Watt demanding the government ban what it determines as “egregious” EBA clauses which are “forced” into existence by pattern bargaining. The Australian Constructors Association, the AiGroup; the Civil Constructors Federation and of course the Master Builders’ Australia penned the letter in mid September in which they say that administration alone is not sufficient and that the “business as usual” approach of the CFMEU is “disgraceful”. So what counts as an egregious clause? Union right to veto or mandate consultation on the use of subcontractors; requiring subcontractors to be on the same rate of pay as those hired by head contractors; the right for union officials to attend workplace inductions; the right to specify particular training or workplace support service providers; and mandating that employers pay contributions into particular worker benefit funds or take out specific insurances. This, apparently, is enough to put a “handbrake” on productivity. It is clear that the bosses are organising themselves to make the most of this opportunity to try to chip away at hardwon conditions, reduce wages, extend the use of labour hire and attack safety. That said, The Oz reported yesterday that in Victoria 620 building companies have signed up to the CFMEU 2024 EBA. Of the EBAs, Master Builders’ Victoria boss Michaela Lihou said “MBV acknowledges that the template industry agreement may or may not be appropriate for every business, and we will support members should they choose, or not choose, to use it.” 620 down, 380 to go to reach Target 1000. We will be watching with iinterest.
HSU WA - Public sector health workers
HSU members were expected to rally yesterday (8/10), but on Monday (7/10) the HSU put posts on their social media saying the rally had been cancelled, and that members had received an email update. A comment from the union on their own Facebook post said “The Cook Government has resorted to underhand tactics, rather than respond appropriately to HSUWA Member claims for better pay and conditions” which would suggest the cancellation was not down to a breakthrough in negotiations. Stay tuned.
TPAV - Victoria Police
Victoria Police have applied to the Fair Work Commission for an intractable bargaining declaration citing the gap between the state government’s wage cap (3%) and the Police Association’s demand (6%) is too big and that there is no “reasonable prospect of agreement”. The police union has voted to oppose the application, and also passed a motion criticising Victoria Police’s treatment of “rank and file” police. Industrial action is still being undertaken by the cops, but am unsure if it extends beyond writing dumb slogans on their cars that pits their wage demands against other groups of workers.
HSU - Diana Asmar
The HSU National Office has secured a Federal Court injunction to stop HWU Victoria Branch Secretary Diana Asmar from using union resources to fund her legal defence. There are also now allegations about an “Asmar gang” whose collective purpose was allegedly to “to create a fund of money to be used to support the election and/or appointment of select individuals into union and other positions to entrench voting blocks on state and national executives of the Labor Party.” Comrades, wouldn’t it be easier to just sign real members up to your union and build industrial power? I am keen to hear from HSU & HWU members for their thoughts on this.
CFMEU/ETU NSW - ETEX
After 52 days on strike, workers at ETEX have reached an in-principle agreement. The new deal includes a 5% pay increase in the first year; 3.5% in the second; and CPI + 0.5% in the third year. Workers have also won a $3500 cost of living payment. All existing conditions have been retained, and allowances improved.
And that is all I’ve got this week. I’m not going to lie, after a few weeks of absolute bumper reports I am reluctantly thankful for a shorter one! But please - do get in touch and let me know what I’ve missed, and what’s going on in your workplace/industry/union. The best thing about starting this project is now hearing from so many workers about their unions, disputes and organising. So please feel free to reach out if you’ve got something to share.
In solidarity, Sarah