Visionstream EA voted up
Visionstream employees have voted to accept a new Enterprise Agreement for field staff.
This is the first new Visionstream agreement for many years and the first for over a decade in which the CWU has been involved. Since the early 2000s, Visionstream has relied on non-union agreements to determine conditions for its direct employees. The last of these was made in 2006.
At the same time, it has made extensive use of sub-contractors who still make up the bulk of its total workforce.
This approach may be good for controlling costs but it has left employees at the mercy of the company when it has come to wage rises. There has been no agreement–based wage rise since January 2009.
The new 4-year agreement provides annual rises of 3%, 3% and 4% on top of an initial resetting of pay scales to reflect adjustments to classification structures.
As reported in E-bulletin #18, Visionstream put this EA to the vote before union negotiations were concluded. Visionstream employees have nevertheless clearly endorsed the agreement and the union will apply to be covered by it if it is certified by the Fair Work Commission.
