Report Back to FWC regarding consultation process with Auscript

A further Report Back Conference was held in the Fair Work Commission (FWC) in Melbourne on the 4 March. The company was represented by Ms. Sharron Myers and Mr. Angus Cameron. This Conference followed the one on the 13 February, where the company was asked by the Commission to review its draft Consultation document and adopt principles which would avoid the disastrous closure of offices and redundancies process that occurred in January 2020.

4 March FWC Conference

At this Conference Auscript worked off documents that had been tabled by the USU/ASU some weeks ago. This allowed significant progress to be made towards having a new Consultation process between Auscript, the USU/ASU and employees.

There are essentially two documents we are working on. Firstly, the USU/ ASU idea to establish a standing Consultative Committee. This would comprise an equal number of Auscript and USU/ASU representatives which would meet at least quarterly to discuss proposed changes and issues affecting employees. This practice would hopefully mitigate against the type of non-consultative behaviour we saw from Auscript in January.

The second and more substantive document is a revised consultation process between the parties.

Commissioner Yilmaz spent over two hours at the Conference trying to bring the parties closer together on both documents. The result is that the Consultative Committee document has almost been agreed while the actual Consultation document still needs more work.

The Commission has asked Auscript to have a further look at the Consultation document and report back to the FWC on the 1 April (download Notice of Listing). The USU/ASU is hopeful that after the 1 April FWC Conference that an agreed document should emerge improving the consultative relationship between the parties.

More information

For more information, please get in touch with the relevant contact below.

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