Thank you to the many USU members who responded to the SMS message of last week.

From more than 100 responses over 97% of respondents felt NPBS Management’s latest offer was NOT acceptable.

Your USU negotiating team held discussions with other Employee Bargaining Representatives who confirmed many of those they represent were also not happy with Management’s offer.
In light of this the USU and Employee Bargaining Representatives put forward a combined counter offer to NPBS Management at a meeting held on Wednesday 15 July, 2020.

The offer is as follows:

Pay Increases
On registration of EA 1.6% – removal of claim for an increase on the amount already paid
September 2020 – 1.25%
September 2021 – 2.00% or CPI whichever is higher with a cap of 2.50%

CCC Loading
Payment of Shift Loading for employees who finish after 6 PM

Leave
Retain current Flexi and EA day entitlements

Relief Allowance
Ensure no erosion of current entitlements for Relief staff.

We also reaffirmed our concerns around some other areas which are primarily related to current and proposed wordings.

NPBS Management presented their response in relation to the CCC loading and Relief Allowance claims along with their position on some other previously tabled claims. The Society’s position was as follows:

  • CCC Loading – employees finishing after 6pm will be paid 20% loading
  • Part Time Additional Hours – introduction of a 20% loading for Additional Hours in certain circumstances
  • They still wish to remove EA days and Flexi Days and replace them with 3 days Wellbeing Leave for all employees from day 1 of employment
  • No increase in “on call” payments for customer Support Officers (IT)
  • No intention to decrease entitlement – Wording in EA regarding Relief Allowance to be amended

Your Union has reserved its position on the Part Time Additional Hours loading until we see the wording proposed by Management and this also applies to the proposed flexibility around Hours of Work.

We also can confirm the USU has no objection to the Society widening the scope of eligibility for Community Leave BUT WE DO NOT AGREE that this should be a negotiating tool in the EA – the benefits to the Society for having its staff contributing to the local community should be available to ALL NPBS employees and therefore should be broadened via a policy change, particularly as the Society appears to be looking to build an indicator around how visible NPBS (employees) are in the community.

The NPBS Management representatives were not in a position to respond to our counter offer and have sought some time to discuss their response.

Negotiations are next scheduled for August 5, 2020 and we will report back to you following this meeting.

Once again thank you for your support – it really gives Your Union negotiating team confidence in negotiating for a better outcome.