Silcar Telecommunications (Visionstream) EA negotiations underway
Negotiations for a new Enterprise Agreement to replace the current Silcar Telecommunications Enterprise Agreement 2012 are now underway.
Silcar was merged with Visionstream last year as part of the restructuring of the Leighton’s group of companies. The new merged entity is called Ventia.
For the time being, at least, the employees covered by the current Silcar Telecommunications EA will continue to have their own agreement, reflecting the specialised work (largely telecommunications power maintenance services) performed by the group.
The CWU has attended three EA bargaining meetings, a full day face-to-face meeting on 21 January and two phone hook-ups on 28 January and 3 February. A further full day meeting is scheduled for 10 February.
The meetings are also being attended by a number of other employee representatives drawn from across the company. The CWU is looking to find common ground with these representatives in order to maximise the overall strength of the employee position.
At present the two issues causing most concern to employees are management proposals to introduce a new classification structure and to introduce on-call provisions into the EA (none presently exist). As yet the question of wage increases has not been opened up.
CWU members covered by this agreement and wanting input into these negotiations should contact their state branch now.
