As you may be aware, the combined unions met with Ausgrid CEO, Richard Gross, and EGM – Transformation, Kathrina Bryen, on Wednesday afternoon and into the evening.
In these meetings, Ausgrid sought concessions from us relating to the management of annual leave and RDOs on a temporary basis, until 30 June 2021, on the basis that the COVID-19 outbreak has had a serious impact on revenue which, in turn, has exposed their leave liabilities as being detrimental to their credit ratings.
Your union does not fundamentally oppose the concessions Ausgrid sought from us for the following reasons:
- The taking of leave is voluntary; and
- It means the retention of jobs in an organisation that is already stretched to its limit.
That said, we were not in a position to formally agree with Ausgrid on Wednesday night for the following reasons:
- We believe it has become abundantly clear Ausgrid has mis-managed leave & RDOs for several years, despite having the reasonable means to manage these items via the Enterprise Agreement; and
- We are in the process of formulating what we will be seeking from the business, in return for our Agreement, so as to future proof it against such a situation arising again. To that end, in short, we will be writing to the business seeking that they engage with us on a regular basis so that we can work together to preserve jobs and avoid a repeat of this situation, or any other situation that potentially threatens their bottom line and, in turn, the jobs of our members.
We hope these points provide comfort to our members – we will always be looking to protect the jobs of our members, not just in the short term, but into the future.
If you have any questions, please contact Troy Dunne or Paul Sansom.
Troy Dunne – Sydney Metro Ausgrid
0419 403 076 / tdunne@usu.org.au
Paul Sansom – Newcastle & Hunter Ausgrid
0409 076 633 / psansom@usu.org.au
