Please sign our petition! As you may be aware, your union participated in a meeting with the AFL on Friday 18 September and we were advised of the following:
- 91 impacted employees elected not to pursue other job opportunities in the organisation;
- There are currently 57 impacted employees who have not been appointed or re-deployed into roles in the new structure; and
- Those 57 employees have exclusively been provided with details of roles yet to be filled and the associated position descriptions. The available roles though, DO NOT have a pay band attached to them.
CONSULTATIVE PROCESS
Your union raised concerns with the consultative process arising out of the 24 August announcement of the restructure. To that end, we pointed out that many, if not most, employees had been stood down on JobKeeper for months on end with little communication from their employer regarding their futures. From this point, it became “a sprint” as employees grappled with life altering decisions, oftentimes without the full suite of information they required in order to come to such decisions.
JOBKEEPER
With regards to the payment of the notice period the AFL advised that anyone on a JobKeeper enabled stand-down during the notice period, will be paid at the JobKeeper rate. Those who are not required to work their notice period will be paid at their pre stand-down rate. Your union is concerned that the AFL will use this as a means to reduce its costs by ensuring all staff currently stood down “work” their notice period. Further, it will be paid at the reduced JobKeeper rate that comes into effect on 28 September.
Additionally, your union made representations to the AFL that it should maintain employees on JobKeeper enabled stand-down until at least the new year, given the AFL has already qualified for the next quarter of JobKeeper. On Monday 21 September, the AFL rejected this request.
NEXT STEPS
As you can see, whilst the AFL may well be acting in accordance with relevant legislation, the information provided to us raises even more questions that we will be seeking answers to.
To that end, the USU and the Victorian Private Sector Branch of the ASU will be writing to the AFL seeking another meeting in which we will seek answers to our concerns relating to JobKeeper and make further representations regarding the retention of employees via the JobKeeper enabled stand-down until at least the new year. Separately, your union will be making representations to the AFL regarding the reduction of redundancy entitlements. Whilst this event does not form a part of our dispute with the AFL, it is a matter of concerns to all employees, whether they are impacted by the change or not, and a situation we will be pushing to rectify.
For more information, contact your USU Organisers Troy Dunne on 0419 403 076 or tdunne@usu.org.au, or Emily Callachor on 0417 420 924 or ecallachor@usu.org.au.
