Council workers need a pay rise
The ASU is proposing to negotiate one multi-employer agreement to cover councils in metropolitan Melbourne and another multi-employer agreement to cover councils in regional Victoria. To do this, we need the support of a majority of workers at each council.
Sign the petition today!
Your petition will then be submitted to the Fair Work Commission who will confidentially verify whether a majority of workers have signed the submission. Your employer
will not be provided with the petition.
Got questions about multi-employer bargaining? Download our frequently asked questions information sheet or click on the drop down boxes below.
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1. What is a multi-employer agreement?
A multi-employer agreement (MEB) is an enterprise agreement that covers two or more employers who have a ‘common interest’ and the business activities are reasonably comparable. Common interests include geographical location, regulatory regime and the size and scope of the enterprises and terms and conditions of employment in those enterprises.
Local councils have common interests because they are covered by the same regulatory regime (the Local Government Act) and undertake similar business activities (e.g. regulate planning, maintain parks, offer childcare services etc).
2. Who will the proposed MEB cover?
Metropolitan multi-employer agreement
The ASU is currently consulting with workers at more than 10 metropolitan councils who have enterprise agreements expiring this year as to whether they want to participate in the Multi-Employer Agreement. If ASU members at each of these sites support the MEB proposal, then we will submit an application for a single multi-employer agreement to cover all participating councils.
Regional multi-employer agreement
The ASU is consulting with workers across regional Victoria at councils who have enterprise agreements expiring this year as to whether they want to participate in the multi-employer agreement. If ASU members at each of these sites support the MEB proposal then we will submit an application for a single multi-employer agreement to cover all participating councils.
3. Why is an MEB a good idea?
The benefits of MEB bargaining as opposed to the traditional single-enterprise bargaining are:
- Unions must consent before an enterprise agreement is put out to a vote of all employees. The employer cannot unilaterally end bargaining before its finished and put the agreement to vote against the union’s wishes (as has occurred at many councils in recent history). This gives workers stronger bargaining power as non-members cannot be used to outvote union members.
- Industrial action can be taken across many councils in support of the agreement, giving the industrial action greater profile and more effectively gaining media and political attention.
- We can utilise the expertise of delegates and organisers across the state and invest in a smaller number of agreements.
- We can pursue the best conditions from across the state.
4. How do you enter an MEB?
The Fair Work Commission has to authorise a ‘single interest employer authorisation’ before bargaining for an MEB can commence. To apply for an authorisation, a union must either gain the consent of each employer or show that a majority of workers employed at each enterprise supports bargaining for an MEB. This can be demonstrated by a simple petition of workers of a majority of workers.
The FWC cannot grant an authorisation until the agreement expires.
5. How do we deal with the different conditions at each council and ensure they aren’t lost in an MEB?
The log of claims will prioritise a claim to ‘preserve all existing conditions in the predecessor agreement’. This savings provision will ensure that workers get the benefit of whatever is achieved at the bargaining table through the MEB process whilst also preserving conditions that were secured in predecessor single enterprise agreements.
Example of a savings provision clause:
No employee will as a result of making this Agreement, suffer any loss of existing wages or other benefits to which the employee is entitled prior to the date of the coming into operation of this Agreement except where specifically provided for by this Agreement.
6. Will this affect my pay rise?
The law requires that the FWC cannot grant an Single Interest Employer Authorisation until after an agreement expires. This means that bargaining cannot commence until this time. For many enterprise agreements, the wage increase falls at the same time as expiry, so this will likely delay the pay rise by a short time. However, as you know it is very common for bargaining to be delayed for single enterprise agreements, and just like we do with single bargaining – we will prioritise back pay so workers are not worse off (and have stronger bargaining power to achieve back pay and fair pay!).