ACMA EA: "no progress" report
The bargaining stalemate continues at the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) despite further EA negotiation meetings.
The CWU and other ACMA unions met with the ACMA representatives on Wednesday 3 May but management continued to refuse to move from its position regarding certain clauses which it insists must be either diluted or removed from the current Agreement.
Many of these clauses relate to workplace culture and safety, including provision of amenities, responsibility for preventing bullying and harassment and conduct of performance management.
Others have a specific monetary value, such as the payment of travel allowance for part-day travel or the payment of increments to staff employed on non-ongoing contracts.
The unions believe that federal government policy does not require ACMA to adopt the slash-and-burn approach it is displaying in relation to current EA provisions in such areas. It seems however that ACMA wants a bare-bones EA to the greatest extent possible.
This is not an approach which seems likely to attract the support of ACMA employees - who have already rejected such proposed EAs twice - any time in the near future.
