St Vincent de Paul EBA Campaign

VOTE NO TO THE VINNIES NON-UNION AGREEMENT

Details

Published on Monday, 30 March, 2009

From 30 March, Vinnies workers will vote on the Collective Agreement. The ASU has looked carefully at the Agreement and strongly recommends you vote NO. Here’s why…

1. This is a non-union agreement – illegal after 1st July

• Non–union agreements provide inferior conditions to union agreements
• This is a non–union agreement because members told your union not to sign it - because it’s a bad agreement
• Non-union agreements cannot be enforced collectively in the Industrial Relations Commission by your union, only as individuals

2. The “agreement” being offered by Vinnies is not good enough

• This “agreement” will make you worse off in $ and cents in the long term, over the life of the agreement (3 years)
• You wait 18 months for your increment instead of 12
• Removes you from the Award Classification structure
• Squashes your career path from 5 to 3 steps
• Leaves whole groups out of the agreement
• The agreement does NOT deliver you a 4.5% increase in real terms – the agreement uses tricks like squashing your pay scale and lengthening your increments to 18 months
• Annual leave loading is abolished and replaced with a tricky new clause
• Sick leave is not paid in the first three months of employment
• Long serving staff must give extra notice of intention to resign
• It removes you from the SACS Award forever

3. Your were never asked what YOU want

• Staff were never given a chance to say what they want on the table – like:
   Increased sick and family leave
   Increased annual leave
   Rostered Days off and flexible work hours
   Access to cars for all staff
• Many other organisations are offering these conditions. These are things we can bargain for after 1st July when WorkChoices is replaced by Fair Work Laws.

4. All that glitters is not gold….

• Your employer says that you will get a big pay rise immediately – this is just not true. All that is being offered is a 2.5% increase for 12 weeks from April to June – this amounts to approximately $240 over 12 weeks. Is everything that’s at stake worth $240?
• You will be getting your full 4.5% increase on 1st July no matter what
• You can access the paid maternity leave and study leave NOW – you don’t need this Agreement to do that
• Vinnies has spent lots of money on “glossy” publications and legal advice – they don’t make this a good agreement. A good agreement sells itself.

5. Your employer is using WorkChoices

• Vinnies gave a written guarantee NOT to use WorkChoices – now they have broken their word and want an agreement before WorkChoices is abolished.
• WorkChoices will be abolished with new laws coming into effect on 1st July 2009
• You don’t have to accept this agreement – you can negotiate a new agreement after 1st July under the new laws
• The new laws mean that Vinnies must negotiate – not just “consult”.
• If there is a YES vote, Vinnies will have THE LAST WORKCHOICES AGREEMENT in the whole sector!

6. Your “agreement” wasn’t negotiated with anyone

• This “agreement” was not negotiated with anyone – it was drawn up by Senior management
• The ASU sought formal negotiations with Vinnies – but they refuse – meetings are NOT negotiations
• Negotiations require give and take – Vinnies flatly refuse to change anything in the agreement, other than one provision which was accidently omitted (fixed term employment)
• Vinnies can avoid formal negotiations because they are using WorkChoices
• You need an agreement that is genuinely negotiated – after WorkChoices is abolished.