Mission Australia

JOINT STATEMENT BY MISSION AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIAN SERVICES UNION (ASU)

Details

Published on Wednesday, 09 July, 2008

We are pleased to let you know that Mission Australia and the ASU had a positive meeting earlier this week and have agreed to future arrangements aimed at getting negotiations back on track and achieving a quick finalisation of the Collective Agreement.

These arrangements are as follows:

• Mission Australia has agreed that in the future, should it have concerns for operational reasons about releasing a staff member to participate in negotiations, it will first consult with the ASU.
  
• The ASU has accepted that in some circumstances, Mission Australia could have reasonable operational reasons for not wanting an employee to be released from their ordinary duties to attend negotiations.
  
• We have agreed to cooperate with each other to overcome any such difficulties to the best of our abilities.
  
• Mission Australia will provide the ASU and its representatives with a Draft Agreement incorporating its responses to concerns previously communicated by the ASU, by Friday July 4th.
  
• A small joint sub-group will meet in the week of July 21st to identify any issues that require further negotiation.
  
• Tentative dates for the next round of negotiations, if needed, have been set for July 29th and 30th.

We are both pleased that we were able to agree on a way forward and give the Agreement negotiations the priority that is warranted.

Regards,

Lincoln Hopper                                            Michael Flinn
Executive Leader                                         Assistant Secretary - (NSW and ACT  Services Branch) ASU Community Services                                     On behalf of the United ASU Staff Negotiation Group