EBA8 - SECRET DEAL EXPOSED

EBA8 was not supported by the majority of the Divisional Executive. Ahmed Fahour bragged in the media: "This is a historic outcome being the first non-union endorsed EA in Australian corporate history... The result is a stunning positive endorsement of our strategy...

Four of the 22 Divisional executive members did a secret deal with Australia Post at the end of May 2013. This included Mr Metcher (NSW) and Mr Hughes (Qld). Mr Metcher, Mr Hughes and two others entered into a "Memorandum of Understanding" agreeing to the following:

"1.1 The (his) Branch agrees that it will:
(a) Take all reasonable steps to support a successful employee ballot, including but not limited to actively campaigning for a "yes" vote in relation to EA2013;
(b) Actively support a "yes" vote for EA2013; and
(c) Take all reasonable steps to ensure support of EA2013."

Once Post had the secret Memorandum, it walked away from negotiations with the National Negotiating Committee because the Committee were demanding a larger pay rise and some better conditions than those agreed to by Mr Metcher and Mr Hughes. Post was bypassing the union and had the support of the non-union EBA from Mr Metcher and Mr Hughes.

Voted when bound by the secret deal

At a Divisional Executive meeting held on 12 June 2013, Mr Metcher and Mr Hughes did not disclose their conflict of interest. When the Divisional Executive was considering the following motion, Mr Metcher voted against the motion, thus assisting Post with its campaign for a "yes" vote. The defeated motion was to assist members. It stated:

"That the Divisional Office notes that Australia Post is putting a non union EBA to all Australia Post staff on 20 June 2013 and notes that some DE members support the EBA.
That the Divisional Executive directs the Divisional Office to prepare a two page document with two column format to be circulated to all Postal members outlining the case for and against acceptance of EBA8.That the material be vetted by the Divisional President to ensure that no political, personal or other attacks are made in the material, and that the arguments be confined to the terms of the EBA.."

The existence of the "Memorandum of Understanding" was not known at the time.

Further, Mr Metcher and Mr Hughes did not have any authority under our Rules to enter into any such agreement.

See the secret Memorandum of Understanding that they entered into.

This secret activity only resulted in an inferior EBA8 for members. What motivated them to undermine the tougher negotiators?
We suffered a 1% per annum EBA in 2010.
We wanted catch-up in 2013 - were we robbed?
We note that neither Mr Metcher nor Mr Hughes

have not advised members of the secret Memorandum

have not placed a copy on their web sites

have not provided or offered a copy to members.

EBA7 CAMPAIGN

The expiry date for EBA7 is 31 July 2013. We are seeking to have a new EBA in place the next day - from 1 August 2013.

EBA7 was a shocker. The EBA provided for guaranteed pay rises of only 1%. There were two performance based payments but only one was viable. This gave a further 0.5% on two occasions. This over the life of EBA7, there were three pay rises:
December 2010 - 2.0%
December 2011 - 1.5%
December 2012 - 1.5%

EBA7 had an extraordinary provision - a pay rise in December 2013, after the expiry date of EBA7. Members would never get this increase! And it was sold to members as a 10% EBA over 3 years - it never was!

EBA8

This time we will not accept pay increases anything like those EBA7. We will seek a decent increase with a level of compensation for EBA7. We will present the outcomes honestly. We hope to avoid industrial action. We will act with your agreement.

We recently negotiated a 6% upfront pay rise for Telstra. (6%,3%,3% over three years) You can be sure that Post will not put that on the table. But we were behind CPI in EBA7 and catchup is needed.

We can make EBA8 fair. But we need your help. Bargaining power is everything. Make sure that our bargaining power is enhanced with 100% membership.

Dan Dwyer - Divisional Secretary
Martin O'Nea - Divisional Assistant Secretary (Postal)