POST TECH REVIEW

The next meeting with Post is on Monday 7 March. We are developing our proposals to put to Post.
Our committee members have addressed the problem of attracting staff as Post salaries are well below the market rates. Electricians are paid well above PTO4 salaries. Our proposals currently provide for a situation where the base level will move up from PTO4 to PTO5. At the high end, the increase in responsibilities placed on shift leaders support an upgrade to PTO8. This is a significant change in parcels where Post has not acted to properly classify those shift leaders for years. The upgrade is overdue.
Further proposals are needed as we see new skills and equipment required for the SME/EL/Planning roles. We also see a need to upgrade smaller facilities such as Canberra and Newcastle. This will not be an easy task as Work level standards need to be rewritten.

POST LWG - SPF

An SPF LWG meeting was held last week. After the meeting we believe that SPF staff are not classified properly and the duty statement reflects that of a PTO5 rather than PTO4. The fact that the Team leaders have been taken off the floor to carry out higher levels of work (supporting upgrades for TLs) should indicate that the work leftover has been given to the technicians. Mr Gopi agreed that the floor runs for weeks without team leaders and engineering leads being on shift. Mr Gopi agreed that he and other managers recruiting staff are struggling because the pay rate of PTO4 is too low. He can offer cert 4 training but will be unable to commit to Diploma training for staff. He has now had to employ other trades such as mechanics that cannot do all the work.

TPG EBA TALKS

The second round of negotiations took place on Tuesday. We began going through the 66 clauses in the EBA. Several logs of claims have been drafted. The meeting ended early as Tasmania had an internet outage. We resume next Tuesday.

TELSTRA SE CONSTRUCTION

Telstra has served us with their witness statements etc. It exceeds 1,000 pages. Telstra has also sought permission to use external lawyers, and this must be determined by the FWC. That will be decided next Monday 7 March.

NBN EBA APPROVED BY FWC

The NBN EBA was approved by staff and has now been approved by the FWC. NBN was required to give some undertakings and we will put the EBA and the undertakings on our web site shortly.

BAI EBA

BAI has advised staff that it intends to begin bargaining for a new EBA. We are now seeking input from our members in BAI to develop a log of claims.

OPTUS EBA VOTED UP

The ballot for the Optus EBA opened from 10am 14 Feb and concluded at 5pm on 20 Feb. Following the conclusion of the ballot, we have been advised by Vero Voting that 1,575 of 2,533 EBA covered employees participated in the ballot with 93.3% of those who voted, saying `yes' to approving the agreement.
Optus will prepare an application for approval of the EBA by the Fair Work Commission

ACTU WARDS ABOUT ELECTION LIES

Sally McManus, the secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, has just released an important warning about anti-union disinformation.
We're 13 weeks from the Federal Election, and this means that right-wing politicians and media outlets have started ramping up the union-bashing scare campaigns We won't sugar coat it. The Liberal Party and Scott Morrison are desperate to win the next election, and that means waging a war against workers in unions.
One of their only hopes is to keep lying about union members and to try to manipulate people into voting for them .If we don't fight back now, it will mean that their misinformation and lies will go unanswered.

POST PROFITS UP

Post today announced group revenue for the first half of $4.80 billion, up 10.4% year-on-year, driven by the strongest parcel volumes in Australia Post's history. The improved Group profit before tax of $199.8 million was underlined by asset sales and revaluations, as well as favourable bond rate movements.
Performance for the six months to 31 December 2021: