USU/ASU members endorse proposed enterprise agreement

Last night USU/ASU members voted overwhelmingly in favour of the USU/ASU endorsing the proposed Virgin Australia and ASU Guest Services and GCC Enterprise Agreement. We expect that the technical process of a vote of all Guest Services and GCC employees will begin in the next week or so.

Don’t forget where we started in these negotiations

Members will remember that at the start of negotiations management put on the table a series of brutal and permanent cuts to your working conditions, as well as a total wage freeze until 2023. In summary management wanted to make the following changes:

• 3 year agreement, locking in until June 2023
• Wage freeze for the whole agreement
• Allowances frozen for the whole agreement
• No progression through classifications for the whole agreement
• New, lesser classification structure for new employees
• Remove requirement for a minimum number of staff to be employed full-time
• Permanently reduce minimum weekly hours for Part Time employees from 25 hours a week to 20 hours a week
• Remove payment of overtime after 8 hours on a shift (to allow them to roster PT employees 10 or 12 hours!)
• Abolishing Days in Lieu for public holidays not worked for PT employees
• Remove AMCO from the Agreement

USU/ASU members told us that you would not accept a long term wage freeze or locking in permanent cuts. Your USU/ASU workplace representatives pushed back and made sure that management understood that while we are open to short term emergency measures to ensure the company is in a strong position as it emerges from voluntary administration and the devastating impacts of COVID19 on airlines.

We were guided by members every step of the way and we were able to get resolutions on every issue that members told us was important.

What claims did we force management to drop?

• AMCO will stay covered by the Agreement
• Part Time employees will keep Days in Lieu
• There will be no change to the Part Time overtime trigger – employees will continue to get paid Over Time after 8 hours on shift

What is in the proposed enterprise agreement?

• Split existing enterprise agreement into 2 agreements – so this will be the Guest Services and GCC Enterprise Agreement
• Agreement will run for just over 18 months: the Agreement will expire in June 2022, with negotiations for a new agreement commencing in just over 12 months in January 2022
• There is a pathway back to the minimum 25 weekly hours a week
  • For existing staff, the minimum hours for part time employees will be:
    • 20 hours a week from now until October 2021;
    • 22 hours a week from October 2021 to June 2022;
    • Back to 25 hours a week from June 2022.
  • or new employees, the minimum weekly hours will be 22 hours a week
  • On full time employment:
    • A guaranteed minimum of 18% of employees will be Full Time;
    • Each year VA has to assess the hours that have been rostered for the PT workforce and where hours rostered at roster publish have exceeded an average of 35 hours a week over the preceding 12 months, a position in the port must be converted to Full Time. Right to be appointed to the position will be in accordance with existing provisions (this is on seniority).
  • New additional hours payment – If you are rostered additional hours with less than 48 hours notice (including shift extensions) you will be paid at 150% for the first 2 hours and 200% thereafter
  • A new rostering committee at each port to work through local rostering issues including:
    • potential alternate roster patterns and shift arrangements;
    • work/life balance concerns;
    • team member access to Job Share and Flexible Work Arrangements;
    • ability of team members to nominate rostering preferences;
    • communications with team members regarding rostering and hours of work, including communications relating to changes to rosters/shifts;
    • processes for shift swaps/giveaways;
    • the availability of annual and long service leave;
    • ability of team members to work alternate employment while working reduced hours.
  • Significantly improved consultation requirements – management must now consult if they are considering a change, not just after they have made a decision
  • Assurances that your union delegates will be able to do their jobs representing members with a delegates charter of rights
  • Requirement for consultation with employees and the ASU for future stand downs, including maximising the capacity for employees to work in secondary employment.

What is the wage proposal?

Most importantly, we saved automatic progression! All existing employees will continue to progress through the classifications to GS4. This means most employees will get a pay rise during the life of the agreement. The base rates for existing employees is as follows:

We were also able to ensure that new employees would not be paid less than existing employees. There will be a new classification structure for new employees that means they won’t be able to progress to 3B or 4, but they will not be paid lesser rates at levels up to GS2/3A.

What will happen from here?

We will continue local consultations on the proposal, and work through a timeline for the proposed agreement to go through the technical approval process that is required. We will provide more information about the employee vote on the proposal next week.

Please contact your local organiser if you have any questions: