Silcar Telecommunications: EA goes to ballot.
The latest round of negotiations for a new Enterprise Agreement (EA) in Silcar Telecommunications (now part of Visionstream) has concluded and a proposed agreement will go to ballot later this month – nearly a year after bargaining commenced!
This will be the second time employees of this section of the consolidated Visionstream operation have voted on an agreement. Employees rejected an EA in May this year.
Although Silcar/Visionstream is not offering any improvements on its earlier 2.5% per annum pay offer, the new agreement does address other issues that employees identified as reasons for rejecting the last proposal. These include:
- Shortage of work – employee leave balance can’t be reduced below 6 weeks (previously 4);
- Reinstatement of extra day’s public holiday in NSW;
- Extension of standby roster to Aurizon contract employees;
- Clarification of standby allowance payment arrangements.
The most recent bargaining meetings have been involved dealing with issues surrounding the payment of travel-related expenses which had not been identified at the time of the first ballot.
We have also had to fine tune a number of clauses to meet the requirements of the federal government’s construction industry code but these have been minimal and have not changed employee entitlements under the proposed agreement.
At this stage it is expected that the ballot will be held on 22nd November.
