Retail members win significant improvement to important allowances
Dear CEPU/CWU Retail Members,
The cost of living is always on the rise, and is often an unforgiving toll on the ability of our members and their families to meet their financial obligations.
Whether it is the grocery bill, the petrol bill, or a family night out – everything is always going up.
Your Union is constantly looking for ways to ease the burden on our members’ hip pockets – both through bargaining better outcomes with your employer and through partnering with organisations, such as the Ambassador Card or Union Shopper, to enable access for members to significant discounts on every day necessities, along with life’s little enjoyments.
And today, we’re pleased to announce that CEPU/CWU members in retail will, from 1 April, enjoy a significant improvement to important, staple allowances to cover the basic costs associated with performing their roles.
The cost of purchasing and replacing appropriate footwear is not immune from inflationary pressures and your Officials have been strongly advocating, for over 12 months now, seeking to improve the retail shoe allowance.
As a result of this persistent agitation by your Officials, members across the country will now be entitled to an improved footwear allowance of $128 per annum. This is now consistent with the allowances received by members in outdoor uniformed roles within Australia Post.
As part of these same discussions, your Officials advocated strongly for clarity and improvement to the Official Telephone Service (OTS) allowance – which was inconsistently applied from state to state and even, in some cases, from workplace to workplace.
The terms of the new OTS allowance are now clearer than ever and appropriately offsets the costs associated with a member being required to be contactable outside of work hours.
A new allowance of $35 will be paid in any month a member, without a work-issued mobile phone, is required to be contactable outside of work hours. This value is benchmarked against the real cost of a Telstra pre-paid sim card inclusive of unlimited calls and SMS for one month.
I am incredibly proud of these outcomes and especially thank Divisional Assistant Secretary Nicole Robinson, Divisional Vice President (AA) and NSW Branch Organiser Elly Huttly, along with QLD Branch President Mark ‘Kiwi’ Templeman whose steadfast determination and persistent discussions with management over a considerably drawn out period have delivered this significant improvement for CEPU retail members across the country.
Should you require any further information on any of your workplace allowances, please contact your State Branch Official for assistance.
Yours faithfully, Greg Rayner,DIVISIONAL SECRETARY.
