Silcar Communications Enterprise Agreement
The CWU will meet with Silcar Communications (now part of Visionstream) on 27 April in an attempt to finalise negotiations for a new Enterprise Agreement (EA).
These negotiations have now been running since mid-2016 and while no formal vote has yet been taken, employees have repeatedly indicated that they are not happy with the proposals that have been made to date.
These have basically consisted of a mixture of cash buy-outs and “ring fencing” (i.e. short-term continuity) of current conditions the company wants to change.
The aim is to bring the conditions in Silcar Communications closer to those in the Visionstream Field Workforce Agreement with a view to having just one agreement covering both groups of workers from late 2018.
Silcar indicated earlier this year that its most recent offer on the main items under negotiation was its final one. Since then discussions have focussed on a range of other issues such as travel allowances, rest breaks, call back and standby.
At the last meeting, held on 21 March, there was agreement on many but not all of these matters.
It is now likely however that, following the 27 April meeting, the EA will be put to employees for a vote even if full agreement has not been reached.
