ACMA negotiations: still no agreement
There has still been no agreement reached between the parties negotiating the new Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) agreement.
The CWU and other unions involved (chiefly the Community and Public Sector Union –CPSU) have been engaged in these negotiations for over a year but the road to agreement has been blocked by the federal government.
As in all other areas of Commonwealth employment, the government is insisting that employees trade-off working conditions for any pay rises, even ones that are below inflation.
And while the government has now said it wants to speed up the agreement process and has moved to ease the cap it has placed on salary rises, it is unlikely that this will mean a quick resolution for ACMA employees.
Meanwhile, changes in government policy seem likely to mean further administrative delays to the bargaining process. ACMA has advised the CWU and other union negotiators that it has been asked to resubmit its latest EA proposal to the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC).
Until the proposal has been ticked off by the APSC, bargaining is likely to stay on hold.
