Unite July 2012

Living in

Insecurity

ASU members speak up about

how insecure work impacts our

industries

• Bargaining news• ACTU Congress• OHS Representation• Addressing bullying

ASU MEMBER MAGAZINE JULY 2012 AUTHORISED AND PRINTED BY INGRID STITT, AUSTRALIAN SERVICES UNION VICTORIAN PRIVATE SECTOR BRANCH, LEVEL 1, 117 CAPEL STREET NORTH MELBOURNE 3051

State of the Union

Message from Branch Secretary Ingrid Stitt

Congratulations ASU members! Together we have achieved great gains for working people over the past twelve months. We have won improvements through bargaining that not only deliver better pay and working conditions, but that allow for greater work-life balance and provide ASU members with a stronger voice at work. In countless EBA campaigns ASU members have joined together and found a voice through which to express their ideas and vision for work. In standing up, each of us has contributed to the wider success of working people across Australia in 2012.

Whether we have personally needed it or not, our union has also supported many individuals through times of crisis at work: employees suffering harassment, discrimination, bullying or plainly unfair treatment. Whether it was the call centre agents who were receiving neither penalty rates nor superannuation, the office administrator who was receiving sub-minimum wage, the accounts officer who was targeted for his race or the new

father who would have been denied parental leave, our union was there standing by members. You were there when they needed you; your solidarity delivered those victories.

Together also, we face some very dire challenges. Australia now has the dishonour of ranking second amongst developed nations in the level of job insecurity in our workforce. Thousands upon thousands of Australian workers are falsely classified as casual, labour hire or contractors despite working regular hours for the same employer—often working an identical job to a colleague on a permanent contract. It’s a sham that unfairly shifts the risk of fluctuating work availability from employers onto individual employees, and your union is working with the ACTU to expose and counteract this insidious trend.

The ASU is also working with other unions to develop a strategy to respond to off-shoring. We recently raised the matter at the Australian Council of

Trade Unions Congress (our union parliament), which you can read about in this edition of Unite.

As always, however, our most important victories are achieved in bargaining; protecting and improving upon the conditions our members work in. In every workplace, ASU members are doing their bit to ensure working conditions in Australia are not eroded under the cover of immense political light and noise. On page 6 you can read about how we plan to sustain this effort into the future.

We hope you enjoy reading about union members’ efforts in 2012 to date.

Yours in Unity

• Staff at Jetset Travel Group are busy organising their workplaces (the group covers a number of call centres and retail offices) for their first ever EBA negotiations. A stellar new team of delegates - fresh from the new delegate training course - are currently compiling claims and working with their organiser Sharon to prepare for negotiations.

• Transfield Services - the contractor that employs our members at the

Eastlink traffic control room - has begun negotiations with members over a new EBA. Transfield came to the table after not insignificant persuasion by ASU delegates and organisers.

• ASU organisers and delegates have been in discussions with management at Armaguard over TV screens to be erected in the cash rooms displaying KPI data. The ASU has been assured that the KPIs displayed are for groups, not

individuals, and management has been informed that any attempt to use this data against members will be challenged at Fair Work Australia.

• New agreements have been negotiated at Slater & Gordon, Maurice Blackburn, SMCT, GTS, Menzies Aviation, Sigma Pharmaceuticals, Symbion, IGA and others. News about these agreements can be found online at www.asuvic.org

Bargaining news in brief

Ingrid StittBranch SecretaryASU Victorian Private Sector Branch

2. UNITE July 2012

Since the last edition of Unite there have been a string of announcements from Qantas.

While the job losses in maintenance and engineering have captured the media’s attention, our own members in clerical, administrative, technical and back office roles have also been hit hard. Around 200 ASU members in Victoria are currently facing the prospect of redundancy. This is on top of the 500 engineering job cuts recently announced

To add to members’ concerns, Qantas has also announced a restructure of the airline into separate Domestic and International divisions. The ASU is in the process of meeting with senior management at Qantas to establish exactly what this change will mean for members, many of whom work across both divisions.

Qantas’ position is that the suite of redundancies are necessary due to the unprofitability of the international division. The unions and members affected, however, point to the reality that Qantas is still one organisation, and a highly profitable one.

The ASU resents the presumption that Qantas can enjoy the status and p r i v i l e g e s of a national carrier whilst making every effort to divert investment and jobs from its operations away from Victoria and in some cases offshore. Members also may feel justifiably angry that failed management decisions are met with ever-higher management salaries and ever-more frequent frontline redundancies.

A national delegates meeting planned for the second half of 2012 will allow delegates and union reps to plan the union’s response to the restructure. Qantas’ EBA will also be due for renegotiation in 2013, and the meeting will give delegates a chance to discuss the EBA.

As always, ASU organisers and officials will be on hand to discuss issues with members. Members are also encouraged to speak to their delegates about recent developments.

Some members may have recognised the name “Energy Watch” when the story about CEO Ben Polis’ facebook shenanigans broke in the press in April. The ASU has been in constant heated exchange with the call centre employer since late last year, advocating for correct payment of penalties and superannuation for members.

When the Herald Sun broke the story just before Easter, the ASU was put in a difficult position. Organiser Gail Drummond had brokered an uneasy truce with the company and extracted a commitment by the employer to pay all staff entitlements in full, including

to staff who had since left the company. The employer had until 21 April to pay up.

But as more and more s c a n d a l s concerning

management came to light, Energy Watch’s business partners and the clubs it sponsored distanced themselves from “Australia’s #1 Energy Broker”.

ASU Branch Secretary Ingrid Stitt, who has been attending creditors meetings as a result of the company’s voluntary administration, will continue to work to secure employees’ outstanding entitlements. Under the Corporations Act employee entitlements rank ahead of unsecured creditors, however the debts left behind by Energy Watch Pty Ltd. are significant.

Following creditors meetings, the Administrator (Lawler Draper Dillon) will prepare a report recommending how creditors can achieve the best return, and the ASU will be in contact with Energy Watch members in the lead up to this.

In a broader sense, the revelations surrounding Mr Polis’ business activities call attention to the importance of stronger legislation to protect workers.

The ASU understands that the federal government is looking to strengthen corporation laws. Employees who are owed wages and unpaid superannuation must be the first priority when a company experiences financial difficulty.

ASIC’s powers to protect employee creditors have also been beefed up in the past few years.

The ASU supports company directors being personally liable for failing to comply with the law to pay superannuation to their workers.

EnergyWatch scandal threatens ASU members’ entitlements

Qantas announcements - different tune, same song

New ideas growing the ASUOur tireless team of workplace delegates & organisers are always developing new ideas to grow and strengthen the union. Some recent developments include:• A new training structure for workplace

delegates to build on industrial knowledge and bargaining skills

• A student engagement program, so that young workers are more informed about the union when they start work

• Social media trials at selected workplaces

Ingrid StittBranch SecretaryASU Victorian Private Sector Branch

2. UNITE July 2012 UNITE July 2012 3.

Brian Howe, Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Insecure Work, opened the report into insecure work with the following words:

“Over the past few decades, a new divide has opened in the Australian workforce. No longer between the blue-collar and whitecollar worker, it is between those in the “core” of the

workforce and those on the “periphery”… [Those in the periphery] are employed on various insecure arrangements, casual, contract or through labour hire companies, on low wages and with far fewer if any benefits… Their work is not a “career”; it is a series of unrelated temporary positions that they need to pay rent, bills and food. For them, flexibility is not knowing when and where they will work, facing the risk of being laid off with no warning, and being required to fit family responsibilities around unpredictable periods of work.”

For the union movement, the trend for workers to be hired under insecure arrangements poses a very real threat not only to the rights of those workers on the “periphery”, but to the basic conditions and entitlements that all Australian workers enjoy, and that we as union members have won in generations of hard struggle.

Insecure working arrangements are being exploited by employers who wish to dodge their superannuation and leave entitlement obligations or unfairly shift the risk of doing business onto workers. Only recently, a Federal Court judge spoke out about the potential impact of ‘sham contracting’, warning that “Rights are a mere shell unless they are respected”. The danger is, insecure work arrangements provide employers with an alternative to respecting those rights.

“Lives on Hold”, the report arising from the Howe inquiry, made the following recommendations:

• Ensure labour law protects all workers by expanding definitions of employment and expanding the National Employment Standards to include minimum standards for all employees.

• Fair Work Australia should be given stronger powers to grant ‘secure employment orders’

• Regulation of the labour hire industry through licensing• Upskilling the workforce so that workers who fall into

insecure work have more options and bargaining power• Government to provide an example in supporting

secure forms of employment• Union movement to continue to

engage with insecure work as an issue

“You would get booked for work and get ready to be paid and they would cancel on you. This would happen at least once a month.”

“Lives on hold” – Howe inquiry into insecure work releases report

The White-collar jobs crisisThe services sector makes up 75% of the Australian economy, and employers are more profitable than ever before. So why are our skilled, administrative, clerical and customer service jobs being offshored to overseas contractors?

There is a white collar jobs crisis in Australia, in which off-shoring is the chief threat. Industry research suggests that up to 850,000 Australian jobs are at risk of off-shoring in the next 20 years.

Despite what some employers are saying, Australian skills and process proficiency are not the issue — employers are simply exploiting the far inferior and unfair working conditions overseas to save money. Efficiency, customer service, data security and Australian jobs are being sacrificed in the process.

Unfortunately, by the time businesses recognise the value of quality professional services and Australian workers’ creativity and talent, there may not be a services industry

left in Australia. Offshoring means that there are fewer opportunities for skilled workers, so skills and investment are lost, and Australia’s capacity for this skilled work is diminished.

The ASU & FSU produced a video explaining the problem for the recent ACTU congress, which you can find at www.asuvic.org.

Brad: “Our company struggled to pay superannuation... and the country that our company moved to don’t actually have superannuation, so it was a

major cost-cut.”

“It’s only going to get worse as companies see cost-cutting in other countries as a viable option”

Read the 2011 off-shoring briefing paper at www.asuvic.org/research

4. UNITE July 2012

Brad’s job as an office manager was made redundant and his job moved offshore

Insecure work is an issue that touches the ASU deeply. Particularly in the airlines and call centre sectors, union members have become accustomed to their employer threatening to outsource their work to contractors who earn less. These workers, moved around on temporary contracts, are isolated from each other and from

us, their industry colleagues, and are thus prevented from organising and asserting their rights.

Union members are much less likely than the general population to be stuck in insecure work without paid leave or employer super contributions—partly because the ASU works to

get our members into more secure work, and partly because insecure workers are less aware of their union rights. Essentially, business lobbies are employing a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy to drive down wages and entitlements.

To combat this strategy, the ASU has been working with the ACTU on the Howe Inquiry. Two of our members from the call centre industry bravely stood up and spoke of their experiences at hearings of the inquiry in March. We are also continuing our efforts through bargaining to ensure that where labour hire and contractors are used, it is for genuine overflow reasons and not to avoid employer obligations.

Thanks to all the ASU members who submitted their experiences to the inquiry. The information will assist unions and the ACTU to campaign against casualisation and insecure work in Australia.

ACTU CongressThe triennial ACTU Congress, otherwise known as the “workers’ parliament”, took place over three days this May in Sydney. Over 1000 delegates representing workers from every industry and sector attended the congress, setting the direction for the ACTU for the next three years.

The focus of Congress 2012 was the Secure Jobs Better Future campaign, with delegates from a range of industries sharing their stories of casual, contract, and labour hire work. Far from the flexible utopia employers often describe, these workers spoke of living in a state of constant financial uncertainty, being called in to work or sent home without notice, working when ill due to financial imperatives, and missing out on the basic leave entitlements the rest of us enjoy. Their insecure employment makes it impossible for them to plan for the future or enjoy a normal family life. Receiving the report of the Independent Inquiry into Insecure Work, the Congress committed the union movement to campaigning to improve job security for people in insecure work, and halting the insidious creeping of insecure work arrangements into Australian workplaces. The immediate priorities include:

• Improvedregulationofthelabourmarket,sothatallworkershaveauniversalsetofprotectionsandentitlements• Reducingemployers’abilitytoshifteconomicriskontotheirworkforce• Providebetterprotectionstoworkersemployedindirectlythroughagencyandlabourhirearrangements• Eliminate‘shamcontracting’

The other major highlight of the Congress was the election of former AMWU National Secretary Dave Oliver as ACTU Secretary. Speaking to the Congress, Mr Oliver said “I am buoyed by the passion across the union movement to ensure that the rights we fought so hard for only a few years ago are maintained and in some areas

strengthened.

“I intend to work with all unions, big and small, to put our agenda into action, grow the movement and achieve positive change for workers and their families.”

“You would get booked for work and get ready to be paid and they would cancel on you. This would happen at least once a month.”

Insecure Work and the ASU

CHECK PHOTO WITH GAIL!4. UNITE July 2012 UNITE July 2012 5.

Union FinancesAccountability: Fair Work Australia regulates registered organisations (including unions) in Australia. The Fair Work Act (2009) covers:• Registration, Amalgamation and related matters• Content and alteration of union rules• Conduct of elections• Criteriafordisqualificationfromoffice• RecordKeeping,financialreportingandaccessto

records• Conductofofficersandemployeesinrelationto

financialmanagement• Penalties for contraventions of the act

In line with the reporting requirements under the Act, the ASU Victorian Private Sector Branch publishes an Audited Accounts report annually, stating the financialpositionofthebranchat30June.Theauditis conducted by our external and independent branch auditors.

Oncetheauditiscompletedforthefinancialyearto30June2012,theASUwillpublishtheauditedaccounts on our website. The most recent audit can be downloaded from www.asuvic.org/financial-statements

The ASU is owned by members & operated by your elected representatives. It is your right to know how

your dues are spent - please check www.asuvic.org/financial-statements

for more detailed information!

Workplace health and safety – We need reps!Our workplaces are becoming busier and busier, and most workers have experienced the stress of increased workload at one time or another. As workloads and the cost of living are ever on the rise, it’s not surprising that so to are strain, sprain and stress related workplace injuries.

We can injure ourselves navigating our physical environment at work as well as becoming stressed and wearied by work-overload no matter where we work. But statistics show that unionised workplaces are safer workplaces - because union members work together and get organised!

Getting organised for better health and safetyThe most effective way of improving health and safety at work is through the active participation and consultation of all workers – not just reps.

The first step in preparing your workplace for wider involvement in OHS is to form Designated Work Groups. The purpose of Designated Work Groups is to split the workplace into manageable units with at least one OHS rep per group, so that every worker has access to (and regular contact with) a representative.

Once you and your colleagues have decided how many DWGs you want, you need to put it in writing to the

Your Union Membershipby the numb3rs

$7 in every 10 goes directly

to organising and campaigning

for our rights at work!

Our union dues resource the ASU’s bargaining and representation work, fund campaigns like ‘Secure jobs better future’, and drive recruitment to keep the ASU fighting fit!

Our Success

Our Strength

$138 more per week

Union members earn on average

than non-members working in Clerical and Admin

Enterprise Bargaining achieves an average

annualised wage increase of 4%

PLUS - A voice at work!

Union members are 70% more aware of occupational health and

safety issues

120,000ASU members across Australia

1.8 millionunion members nationwide

and growing...

We are active, strong and united. We are the ASU.

Our $pending

!

Spendingdatabasedon2010-11auditorsreport.2012-13reportavailablelaterthisyear.StatisticssourcedfromAustralianBureauofStatistics,“EmployeeEarnings,Benefitsand Trade Union Membership Australia” and ACTU Wages report. Average annualised wage increase means your total wage increase over the life of the agreement averaged over each year of the agreement.

6. UNITE July 2012

70%  

13%  

17%  Organising  and  campaigning  

Union  Democracy  and  representa8on  

Admin  and  finance  

cont. p7

A S U

employer. A Pro Forma letter and other OHS materials are available from www.asuvic.org

Your employer then must commence negotiations to determine the composition of the designated work groups within 14 days. If your employer is unwilling to cooperate, you can contact the ASU for help.

After forming DWGs, all employees are entitled to vote in OHS Rep elections.

What does a Health and Safety Rep do?Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (2004), a OHS Rep has the right to:• Inspect the workplace or accompany a workplace

Inspector• Require the workplace to establish a health and safety

committee• Be consulted on changes to the workplace that may affect

health, safety and welfare• Receive training, facilities and assistance to help them

perform their role• Access information or assistance regarding employee

health and safetyA OHS Rep also has the power to:• Issue a “Provisional Improvement Notice” (PIN)

requiring remedy of a situation that contravenes the OHS Act or regulations

• Direct that work cease in the event of an immediate threat

Training of health and safety repsAll OHS reps are entitled to attend a WorkSafe approved initial 5 day OHS Reps training course of their choice on paid leave. Victorian Trades Hall Council conducts an approved course twice monthly at various locations around Melbourne and country Victoria.

Victorian Trades Hall also offers refresher training, which representatives are entitled to attend once a year.

Keeping your workplace safeYour workplace may have organised around a specific health or safety issue, but to keep workplace safety on the agenda, all workers should stay involved and regularly discuss concerns with your rep.

Don’t just put up with health and safety hazards – get involved with your workplace safety processes, speak up, and support others who have a concern. Work shouldn’t hurt!

Unions have campaigned for over 30 years for the introduction of paid parental leave. Although many of our members have successfully negotiated parental leave into their EBAs, others had slipped through the cracks. Unions are pleased that now all workers—even those in insecure work arrangements who receive no other form of leave—now have access to a paid scheme to allow them the financial security to take time off work to welcome their new baby.

Following disputes in a number of workplaces regarding eligibility for paid parental leave, the ASU would like to draw members’ attention to some points that may be relevant to your personal circumstances.

To be eligible for the scheme, which provides 18 weeks of pay at the minimum wage (currently $589.30 per week) you must:• Be the primary carer of anewborn or recently adopted child,

usually but not exclusively the mother. Fathers who take on primary care roles (are the person most responsible for meeting the child’s physical needs) are eligible for Parental Leave Pay, regardless of the gender of their partner. • Be an Australian resident (acitizen or holder of a relevant visa)• Have worked for at least 10of the 13 months prior to the birth or adoption of your child and have worked for at least 330 hours in that 10 month period (just over one day a week) with no more than an eight week gap between two consecutive working days.• Havereceivedan individual adjusted taxable income of up to $150 000 or less in the financial year prior to the date of birth, adoption or date of claim

• Beonleaveornotworkingforthe duration of the Parental Leave Pay period.

Paternity Leave From 1 January 2013 and subject to the passage of legislation, the government will roll out “Dad and Partner Pay” as part of the scheme. Eligible fathers and partners will receive two weeks’ pay at the national minimum wage (a sum of $1178.6) if they have earned less than $150,000 in the previous year.

Paid parental Leave - Dads and partners

Workplace health and safety – We need reps!

Paternity Leave- Dad and partner pay to commence January 2013

CHECK PHOTO WITH GAIL!6. UNITE July 2012

UNITE July 2012 7.

cont. p7

It would be comforting and perhaps convenient to characterise bullying as something that only happens in the worst workplaces, where tyrant bosses oversee a cowering workforce of oppressed and mistreated employees. But the ASU’s broad coverage has given us some insight into the fact that bullying can take place in any workplace or industry.

Likewise, bullying is not necessarily a one-dimensional phenomenon; co-workers can bully each other, staff can bully supervisors, an individual can bully groups. Union members can be perpetrators, and the union may be called in to defend them against dismissal.

The ASU has been alerted to bullying cases in all manner of workplaces, some of which are otherwise model employers. Our approach in these cases is to work with the employer to improve practices over the long term, in addition to addressing the immediate needs of the bullying victim.

Recently, one workplace in which the ASU was called in to address bullying has done an exemplary job of acknowledging the problem and working with the union to change attitudes to bullying amongst staff, management and board. They:• Met with the union to address the bullying claim in good

faith, wanting to actually address the causes of the case and not just ‘make it go away’

• Provided counselling to both the bullying victim and the perpetrator, to ensure work relationships could be salvaged

• Provided education to the entire workforce around bullying and harassment.

• Directed efforts towards establishing a culture in which all members of the organisation could feel safe reporting bullying

The workplace also recognised that the nature of their work was prone to bullying ‘risk factors’, which make it more likely that bullying could occur in their workplace. Risk factors include:• Having vulnerable workers including young workers, new

workers, apprentices, injured workers or workers in a minority because of ethnicity, religion, disability, political affiliation, gender or sexual preference

• Poor work relationships: workplace interactions are characterised by criticism, exclusion, autocratic leadership style

• Negative leadership styles: Workers are prevented from exercising their collective voice through the union, or leadership is inadequate

• Organisational uncertainty as a result of change in processes, structure, systems.

One of the most important ways the ASU combats bullying in our workplaces is through organising: providing employees with a collective voice, a sense of respect in the workplace, and a clear structure through which to act (delegates, organisers, occupational health and safety reps etc.).

As union members, we can work together to stamp out bullying in our workplaces, knowing that we always stand with the full support of the union behind us. If you witness bullying, don’t hesitate to report it either to your delegate, organiser or a colleague whom you trust, and if you need to, seek advice from the union on how to proceed.

The Federal Government is currently holding an inquiry into workplace bullying. The ASU will be making a submission to the inquiry, which we hope will persuade governments to improve regulation.

Bullying not exclusive to ‘bad’ bossesBullying—“repeated unreasonable behaviour directed towards a worker or group of workers that creates a risk to health and safety”—is a grave problem in very many workplaces. It is a workplace problem as serious as any. Victims of bullying often carry their problems home, and describe feelings of depression, worthlessness, fear and anxiety impacting their relationships with friends and family beyond work hours. No worker should have to feel like this, and the union movement won’t stand for it.

8. UNITE July 2012

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