Members at Maurice Blackburn voted to take industrial action, as bargaining for their new enterprise agreement has stalled. Management refuses to budge on their low ball wage offer of 3.25%, and refuses to provide ten days paid reproductive health leave to staff, despite publicly advocating for reproductive health leave and assisting in negotiating for it in the Queensland Public Sector award. The firm also refuses to offer a fair redundancy package for members, and refuses to improve provisions for work/life balance, despite the bargaining team giving the firm multiple options to choose, including RDOs, increased health/wellbeing leave, and increased personal leave.
Management’s refusal to budge has been disappointing to say the least, considering bargaining has taken place since April. Members have shown their dissatisfaction with management through increasing their activities in the Sydney Office. The bargaining team, including four representatives from NSW have developed a campaign titled: ‘Experience Maurice Blackburn won’t pay for’, based on the slogan ‘Experience you can count on’, with posters containing this slogan going up all around the Sydney Office – to the point that it is unlikely the CEO could avoid seeing them when there.
We have also seen a significant increase in membership, with 15 new members joining since the start of bargaining. Much of this has come from members having conversations with their colleagues about the importance of standing together to win a fair EA.
Picture above: Our members at Maurice Blackburn Lawyers taking industrial action for a fair pay rise, better work life balance and reproductive health leave, in their next EA!
