Enterprise agreement negotiations have started, with all parties submitting their log of claims at a recent meeting and early discussion about those claims.
Council has advised that it does not support our wage claim that would keep wages consistent with cost of living. Its initial offer is a 3.5% increase in year 1, 90% of rate cap in year 2 and 80% of rate cap in year 3. This is disappointing as councils with a higher base pay rate than Ballarat have offered better wage increases than this in bargaining. Unions told the council that the offer is too low! This will be brought back to members for further discussion.
- Council offered to pay superannuation on parental leave for up to one year. The unions said the cap should be two years. Council said they will consider this.
- Management don’t support our claim for council to contribute 1% over the minimum legislative superannuation amount.
- Council have agreed to increase allowances in line with a negotiated pay increase.
- We have also discussed our end of band payment, superannuation being paid on all periods of WorkCover, our claim to adhere to the principles of the Local Government Act 2020 regarding tendering out services and our claim to improve the Staff Consultative Committee.
Of the 54 ASU claims (excluding schedule claims), these are the only ones that have been discussed so far. Council intend to have discussions about Local Laws and Aquatics claims this week and hopefully progress some more of the general claims.
Despite weekly meetings, this process is going slowly and we’d ask members for patience. We encourage you to keep in touch with your workplace delegates through this process and keep on eye out for our regular updates.
Talk to your colleagues about joining up today via https://www.asu.asn.au/asujoin
For further information please contact:
ASU organiser Angela McCarthy | 0477 666 323
