NBN Co negotiations resume
Enterprise Agreement discussions with NBN Co have resumed after a considerable pause during which the federal government appears to have tried to impose its public sector wage policy on the company, with mixed results.
CWU officials met with NBN Co representatives on 9 December to discuss the company’s position.
Basically NBN Co is proposing there be no major changes to the entitlements provided for in the existing NBN Co and CEPU Technical Employees Agreement, with the new agreement to last at least 3 years.
So it is not seeking the “productivity offsets” (i.e. cuts to conditions) that the federal government is demanding from public sector employees.
What is does want, though, is to move to a performance-based pay system, while restricting overall wage rises within that system to around CPI.
So some employees would get a real wage increase (above rises in the cost of living) and some would get less. This is presumably being proposed with an eye to the government’s “productivity” policy.
The CWU does not oppose the inclusion of some form of performance component in employees’ total pay package. It does, however, believe that all employees are entitled to a uniform pay rise that at least preserves their real wage levels (i.e. keeps pace with CPI increases).
The CWU has conveyed this view to NBN Co. Negotiations resume on 18 December.
