This newsletter provides members with an update of developments in negotiations with MYC in relation to proposed roster changes and significant organisational change.

Union Meeting for Friday (tomorrow) Postponed Whilst Negotiations Continue
Tomorrow’s planned Union meeting has been postponed following discussions today with MYC management. Below is an outline of progress made.

Industrial Relations Commission Proceedings Postponed to Allow Further Discussion
As members will be aware the ASU had sought the assistance of the NSW Industrial Commission in getting negotiations back in place after a breakdown in discussions last week. The details of what happened last week were in Bulletin No. 5. The Commission had been scheduled to deal with this matter at 9.30 am today.

Yesterday afternoon Cate Sydes approached the Union to seek to restore negotiations and seeking our agreement to delay proceedings in the Commission. Of course the ASU agreed to this proposal on the basis that MYC also agree to cancel a proposed meeting of the Roster Committee (set for Friday) and the proposed meetings with staff (set for Monday.)

Negotiations Today
At today’s resumption of negotiations, the ASU delegation was led by the Union Secretary Sally McManus and was attended by your ASU MYC delegates. MYC was represented by Paul Davis (Solicitor) and the management team – Cate Sydes was not in attendance. The meeting took about 3 hours and covered numerous issues which can be summarised as follows:ased to 9.This would appear to be an increase in staffing but we have sought further clarification on this issue.

How Negotiations Will Proceed From Now On
The ASU raised concerns about restrictions that had been placed on the use of email by ASU delegates and the need for MYC to assist in facilitating the ability of the ASU delegates to consult members if the dispute was to be settled as quickly as possible.

It was agreed that:

• An ASU intranet will be established within the MYC IT system to allow a free and quick exchange of views by ASU members. MYC will respect the privacy of the intranet and the ASU agrees to make use of the intranet in a responsible manner.
• It was recognised and accepted that as we continue negotiations (see further in this bulletin) the ASU will need to consult with Staff. It was agreed that when negotiations reached this point that MYC would facilitate meetings of ASU members in the same way that the CEO had facilitated her meeting with staff earlier in the process, ie. by allowing for all staff to attend union meetings and those staff not rostered on to be paid to attend.

The ASU and its delegates were very pleased to receive such a positive response from the representatives and will move to implement these arrangements in the coming days.

Details related to the proposed changes at MYC.
During the course of the discussions a number of very significant issues became clear – these issues had not been put on the table in detail until today. Those issues are as follows:

• MYC is not just proposing a change to rosters, it is proposing a major change in organisational structure.
• MYC funding from government will increase by 13% under its new contracts, NOT be cut as we had previously been advised.
• The proposed changes in the organisational structure will mean that costs will increase by 17%.
• This means that there is a $1.2 million shortfall in the budget.
• MYC wants to introduce its new rosters so that it can “save” $550,000
• The need to change the rosters results from the need to cut costs – the need to cut costs arises from the new organisational structure
• The new organisational structure is as follows:
  11 House Co-ordinators
  4 Case Work Co-ordinators
  3.6 Case Workers
  9 Senior Youth Workers
  62 Youth Workers

As members will appreciate this is a very different situation from what we had understood up until now.

What Was Agreed at the End of Today’s Meeting
At the end of today’s meeting the parties (MYC and the ASU) agreed as follows:

• MYC Delegates will be released with pay on Monday October 20th to consider the implications of the new material and to consider a response.
• That the ASU and MYC representative, Paul Davis, will continue with a process of open dialogue.
• That once ASU Delegates have considered a response the ASU will reopen discussions with MYC and move to set up consultation with ASU members on the way forward.

What Your Delegates Will Do on October 20th
Your delegates now have to consider the reality of the situation:

• MYC have finalised a contract for service delivery that increases income by 13% but also want to introduce a new organisational structure that increases costs by 17%.
• To fix the budget problems caused by this they want to save $550,000 by changing the rosters.

Your delegates will be working on a response that will include:

• What job opportunities does the new structure offer to existing staff that might assist in ensuring that staff don’t lose pay?
• What alternative roster arrangements could we make that might make savings – but savings that have as little impact on your take home pay as possible?
• What other cuts could the employer make to save costs?
• Are there other new positions that might have been created in recent times but are not really needed?
• Can we look to protect existing workers and look at different arrangements for new employees?
• Can we explore options about a phased approach to fixing the problem?

If you have ideas, suggestions or thoughts then please either contact your delegates or Adrienne Vella on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Your delegates will send you another update after Monday 20th October. Once we have a proposal we will be calling a meeting of ASU members to discuss and consider that proposal – remember MYC will now be assisting in
ensuring that you can all get to the meeting.