Cutting our pay?
Salary packaging is a tax concession from the Government to allow organisations like Mission to increase your pay without costing the organisation extra money. Mission wants to remove salary packaging from the agreement. On one hand they keep saying they don’t want to change anything about salary packaging but refuse to protect this benefit in our Agreement.
MA disclosed they don’t want it in the agreement JUST in case they sell and transfer parts of the business to a new employer.
Wages in our sector aren’t high enough and we know members can’t afford to go backwards!
Ending Job Security?
Members want a commitment to permanent work. Mission wants to put workers on “fixed term contracts”. This means you can be let go after 4 years’ service with no redundancy pay.
Already workers on fixed term contracts make up 28% of the workforce at Mission. Casuals make up 33%. This means close to two thirds of the workforce have no rights to professional development, redundancy pay or additional leave like long service leave or paid parental leave.
ASU members are committed to Mission, but they should be committed to members now and in the future!
Family violence leave and support?
As workers in the community sector, you may support members of the community experiencing family violence but Mission management won’t guarantee in your agreement support and leave for their own employees.
Mission refuses to commit to paid leave for workers experiencing family violence in the agreement. Management want to keep it in policy, to make sure they can “change it any time”.
Family violence leave is already in over 800 agreements nationally. But Mission insists that having an unenforceable policy is sufficient. We disagree – Mission should be setting the standards in our sector, and supporting staff when they need it.
Wages?
Mission Australia has still not committed to a wage increase.
Management have said it won’t be offering an “across the board” pay increase.
Some members at Mission are currently paid above their pay rate – maybe thanks to the rolling in of annual leave loading, first aid allowance and/or grand-parented wages as is the case for ex-service managers. Mission has indicated they want to “freeze” these wages.
Costs of living don’t freeze! We have to stick together and not be divided by management’s plan to pick and choose who gets a pay rise!
Still under consideration
Mission Australia have already refused some of our fair and reasonable proposals but forward by the ASU bargaining team.
Management are yet to decide on the following; improving our remote location allowance, improving sleepover pay and conditions, and our claim for better management of workloads so targets can be met in working hours.