Last month, QUT informed your union about a range of proposed changes at the university including a proposal for change for the Science & Engineering Faculty (you can see that email here). 

We have recently been advised by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) that the Commissioner wants to conduct advanced modelling of the 2018 agreement wage rates as part of his assessment for the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT). BOOT requires that each of the employees, who are to be covered by the agreement, are better off overall on the agreement rather than the relevant modern award. This is critical to consider when approving an agreement.

Our Protected Action Ballot is open until 3:30pm today so that HPs, DOs and Clinical Assistants can vote to be able to take protected industrial action for better pay and conditions. I would like to remind members of the importance of voting Yes for all the actions so that our members can be ready to take action at the right time over the next few weeks.

Your union has received correspondence from Transurban advising of proposed changes in hours of operation for the Customer Care team. According to Transurban this was following a review of peak call periods which are currently 7am - 7pm. The proposed hours of operation are 8am - 6pm, Monday to Friday. This change is not intended to impact on headcount, individual weekly working hours or other conditions. 

Can you believe it? It's only 69 days until Christmas!

The Office of Industrial Relations has released the Christmas Closure policy for public sector workers this year; you can view a copy of the policy here.

AMWU National Secretary Paul Bastian has responded to the EBA claim that we put forward to the employer on 23 September.

Bargaining representatives met with Emirates on Wednesday, 9 October 2019.

In previous meetings, Emirates have given some indication that a number of claims would be acceptable but we are still apart on a number of issues for bargaining – in particular where we will land on remuneration.

We're now up to 170 incidents of staff assault so far this year. Our Respect the Risk campaign is making politicians sit up and take notice (see the petition Bruce Sanders MP is supporting here) but we need to do more.

Your Armaguard Metro Agreement is still sitting with the Fair Work Commission (FWC) while they check whether the new agreement passes the "Better Off Overall Test" (BOOT).