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CWU T&S WEEKLY BULLETIN NO 2020 / 03
02 FEB 2020

SICK LEAVE - INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT
A decision of the full Federal Court is under appeal in the High Court re sick leave. Post and Telstra employees have 15 days sick leave. Others have at least 10 days leave. The Federal Court held that a day was a day - not 7 hours 21 mins (as in Telstra and Post). The impact of this was discussed in the case.
Employers often calculate leave in hours, not days. Thus a person on a 9 day fortnight would only get 9 days leave, not 10. The Court said that they must get 10 days, no matter how long the working day is. Similarly for those on 10 and 12 hour shifts. A person on 12 hour shifts (with 10 days SL) are entitled to 120 hours sick leave, not 73.5 hours. Should the High Court uphold the decision, there will need to be many recalculations.

AUS POST EBA
The nominal expiry date for the Agreement is 9 August 2020. Talks will soon begin to reach a new agreement. Technical staff form a small portion of the 30,000 staff covered by the agreement. We are seeking your input. What matters should be put into an agreement and what pay rises should we sought? What are the most important matters? Pay, redundancy, allowances, contractors, a separate EBA? Please let us know via email.

SPF DEVELOPMENTS
Below is a copy of the latest offer from Post. While some progress has been made, it is short of what we had sought. A copy of our "without prejudice" proposal is also attached. The mitigation of overtime is one factor. We need your feedback asap. Please email me, or speak with our reps Garry Newberry or Paul Sherley. We have sought a further meeting with Post to discuss your responses.

SPF POST PROPOSAL

    SPF Technical Shift Alignment
  • Further to our meeting yesterday and your subsequent joint union position outlined in your letter dated 28 January 2020 regarding the SPF Technical shift alignment, the following is our response to your letter where our position varies from your proposal;
  • We intend to maintain a 4-week roster rotation with the operational maintenance teams as that best enables us to program and manage our planned maintenance within the morning roster. Noting your concerns with this roster rotation, we are prepared to review this rotation in six months' time to understand if there are any negative impacts from having a 4-week roster rotation pattern.
  • We do not agree on a minimum staffing level for operational technical shifts, we will ensure that all work is performed in a safe manner and in line with operational requirements, as indicated at our meeting it is in our best interests to ensure that we have sufficient staffing to ensure the effective operation of our machines.
  • We intend to maintain the allocation of staff for the Sunday overtime shifts as follows; morning shift (7.00am-3.10pm) 4 x PTO4 from day shift and afternoon shift (3.00pm - 11.10pm) 4 x PTO4 from afternoon/night shift. In response to your proposal, we are prepared to increase the Sunday overtime shift offering by an additional 1 x PTO4 on both the morning and afternoon shifts for a period of 3 months to enable staff to transition across to the new rosters. Where staff do not turn up for their Sunday overtime shift we will not have an automatic backfill.
  • We are prepared to have the SGF maintenance shifts wholly maintained by SPF staff and incorporated into the SPF rostering arrangements on the following basis;
  • we will maintain 2 x PTO4 on each of the Sunday overtime shifts being morning, afternoon and evening until 1 July 2020 at which time they will revert to 1 x PTO4 on each shift,
  • Saturday overtime to be offered based on operational requirements and staffing will be sourced from SPF technicians and a review to be undertaken on having 1 x PTO4 on the Monday to Friday shifts to understand any safety issues, the review to commence 3 February 2020 with an aim to complete by 14 February 2020 and outcomes of the review to be discussed with the union prior to implementation.
  • The additional staff that were to perform this role at SGF will be added to the SPF roster.
  • The proposed review of classifications is a national issue and much broader than the current SPF roster discussions as progression through these classifications is outlined in the current EBA, this is a matter that should be addressed in a national forum and would suggest it be referred to the National Engineering JCC for further discussion.
  • In respect to short term swaps across shifts, we maintain that these need to be submitted to the Technical Manager for approval to ensure visibility across the whole Facility and to ensure no adverse operational impacts. This also provides the ability to explore alternative arrangements where staff are unable to work their current shift.
  • The night shift start time is to be maintained at 9pm to enable a hand over between shifts.
  • As you can appreciate the above position is a significant movement from our initial proposal where following consultation we have agreed to move away from fixed shifts, include a 30- minute paid meal break as well as maintain the SGF work within the SPF technical group in addition to the concessions above.
  • As indicated at our meeting yesterday, any agreement, in particular the staffing arrangements at SGF, is dependent on acceptance of the overall SPF rostering proposal as outlined above. Please advise any comments or if you would like to have further discussions noting our intention is to commence these new rosters from 10 February.

SPF - OUR PROPOSAL FOR DISCUSSION

  • Implementation will occur on 10 Feb 2020.
  • There will be three operational/maintenance teams that will rotate between 5am, 1pm and 9pm.
  • Each team will have one TL and seven PTO4s which includes one mechanical technician.
  • These shifts will rotate every 2 weeks.
  • The minimum staffing on the Operational Shifts is one TL and 4 x PTO4
  • There will be a fixed maintenance shift that will commence at 5am
  • The Maintenance Team will have a TL and seven PTO4s which includes three mechanical technicians.
  • An EOI will be distributed to all PTO4s at SPF to enable staff interested in the fixed morning maintenance shift to express an interest in that shift.
  • The selection process for the Maintenance team will be qualifications for roles required ie. electrical and mechanical technicians followed by seniority.
  • Sunday shifts will be overtime shifts.
  • SPF Sunday Shifts will be as follows, noting that Friday shifts will not be overtime;
    • Morning shift 7:00am - 3:10pm 5 x PTO4 and a TL
    • Afternoon shift 3:00pm - 11:10pm 5 x PTO4 and a TL
  • SPF overtime is to be offered equally. In order to provide equal access on Sunday. The following is agreed:
    • 2 x PTO4 from the Maintenance shift (2 from 7 staff)
    • 6 x PTO4 from the Operational shifts (8 from 21 staff)
  • SGF will continue to be maintained wholly from SPF, including when needing support with 1 man operations
  • SGF Overtime on Sunday will continue with 2xPTO4 on day, evening and night shifts until 1 July 2020.
  • SGF Maintenance overtime shifts on Saturday will continue with current operation times as required
  • SGF staffing will be reduced to one PTO4 within 3 months. This will be subject to further discussions to determine issues of safety and need.
  • The parties agree to an immediate joint review of classifications, particularly having regard to the number of staff having equivalent qualifications to the formal qualifications.
  • Each rostered shift will have a 30-minute paid meal break.
  • The shift swap process will be as follows;
      Requests within team
    • Organised amongst team members and team leader to be advised. Request for Short Term swap outside team (one week)
    • Any such request should be at least 1 week in advance where practicable.
    • Employees must make the request by email to their Team Leader.
    • It is expected that such leave requests will be approved unless there are any substantial operational reasons. Requests for Longer Term swaps
    • Request to be in writing on a Workplace Flexibility form to the Facility Technical Manager.
    • Requests should be at least 2 weeks in advance. General
    • Where a request is not approved the employee will be advised in writing including the reasons why.
    • Where a request is refused there will be an ability to escalate to the Facility Operations Manager, the employee can be represented by the union with these discussions.
    • Members are interested in an 8pm start for night shift at SPF

VIP - CONTACTING US - NEW PHONE NUMBER
Please note the following changes as we simplify our phone numbers
0428 942 878 dan.dwyer@cwunion.net Dan Dwyer Secretary/Lawyer - for industrial matters & advice
0447 365 443 reception@cwunion.net Administrative eg payments, applications, change of details

Authorised by Dan Dwyer Branch Secretary
CWU Telecommunications & Services Branch, Sydney City, NSW.



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