PacNat EBA RTBU News Flash! No 23

Update on Leave Provisions and Career Paths and Classification Structures.

The RTBU Negotiating Team met again with Pacific National representatives on Tuesday the 2nd September 2003. The RTBU has made it clear to the company that the negotiations will be finalised quickly so that the proposed EBA can be put to members for their consideration.

The major issues negotiated during this meeting were Classification Structures and Leave policies.

Leave

The RTBU put the following proposition to Pacific National regarding Leave:

• Long Service Leave;

Payment for Long Service Leave for former NRC employees to be continued to be paid on full salary and this to be Grandfathered. (This is a must because most ex NRC employees are due for LSL this year and is valued at between $4 - $5K)

Former FreightCorp employees to continue to have their Long Service Leave paid at the base rate.

All new employees to have their Long Service Leave paid at the base rate.

• Annual Leave;

• A formula to apply where employees will have their Annual Leave Loading built in to the salary and will therefore receive the same pay year round, regardless of whether they are on Annual Leave or not.

• Sick Leave

• Former FreightCorp employees to retain their accumulated Sick Leave.
• Former NRC employees to be issued with an initial allocation of 65 days Sick Leave upon certification of the Agreement.
• Payment for Sick Leave for all employees to be at the base plus aggregate rate for 15 days per year.
• The unused portions of Sick Leave which accumulate from year to year will be paid at the base rate.
• Family Leave of up to five days to provide assistance to members of the immediate family may be accessed from an employee's Sick Leave entitlement and be paid at the base rate.

• Other Leave

• All other forms of Leave, e.g Trauma, Bereavement, Parental, Jury Service, Military and Community Service and Special Leave would be paid at the base rate.

To date, Pacific National has not responded to the proposition put by the RTBU Negotiating Team.

Career Paths and Classification Structures

One of the issues where there has continued to be substantial differences between the parties has been Career Paths and Classification Structures. Pacific National initially proposed to abolish Streams and Career Paths entirely. The RTBU has consistently insisted that Classification Streams and Career Paths within those Streams are important to members.

Following a number of off line meetings, the parties are slowly inching towards an agreement for Classification Structures. The company has agreed to retain the Classification Streams. Under the new proposal there will be two Career Paths, an 'Operations' Career Path which will include Train Crew, Terminal Operators and Maintainers, and a 'Support' Career Path which will include Administration and Network Controllers.

The Operations Career Path has separate Classification Structures for Drivers, Terminal Operators and Maintainers and the Support Career Path has the same Classification Structure for both Administration and Network Controllers. These Classification Structures determine the pay level each employee is entitled to, dependant upon the duties they are required to perform.

At this stage, the parties have an in principle agreement to about 80% of the Career Path and Classification Structure proposal. Discussions are continuing to take place to reach full agreement on this issue.

Further Information

For further information on any of the above, please contact your local Delegate, your State Branch or the National Office or web site at www.rtbu-nat.asn.au

Newsflash! At Home

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