Making a modern Australia Post award
Last week the CWU National Office and Australia Post attended a Conference before the Full Bench at the Fair Work Commission on making a Modern Enterprise Award for AP workers.
In making a modern award the Full Bench said the important threshold issue was whether to make an award and if so on what terms. Determining what should be in an Enterprise Award might be putting the cart before the horse, they said.
In addressing the first issue your union said it was common ground between the parties that an Enterprise Award be made but acknowledged that we would need to put a submission in that regard.
On the second issue, the content of the Modern Award, the Full Bench cautioned the parties to make no assumptions. In other words put your arguments and then the Bench will decide.
Disagreement between AP and the union on the content of the modern award really comes down to about 11 outstanding items. We will have to argue our case for each item.
One of the disputed items is the span of hours. Your union wants to maintain the span of hours specified in the relevant specific award (e.g. in the Technical Award). We don’t agree with Australia Post’s new clause to change to spread of ordinary hours because some people would lose shift penalties.
We are also seeking to have industry standards such as the 25% casual loading (currently 22.5% in Australia Post) and a minimum of 3 hours for part-time employees imported into the Enterprise Award.
The matter is set down for Hearing in October this year, at which time the Full Bench will decide whether to make an Award and on what terms.
