Your ASU national negotiating team met with VA management on Tuesday 15 August 2017. At that meeting VA made some proposals for changes to your enterprise agreement. We now need feedback from members about what you think of the proposals, and what we should do next.
ASU delegates and organisers will be holding workplace meetings in coming weeks to give you detailed information about the proposal, and to get your feedback. Keep your eyes out for details of your local workplace meetings, and make sure you have your say.
An overview of the VA proposal
As a result of ASU members’ activity and feedback, VA has agreed to some ASU claims, including:
- Getting rid of the ROS day (but they don’t know how they are going to do this yet, so the devil will be in the detail!)
- Better access to training
- A fairer annual leave approval process
- A fairer job selection process for promotions
It has also dropped a number of its claims, including:
- Changes to higher duties allowance
- Averaging hours over a 28 day period (instead of the current 14 day period)
- The right to unilaterally inspect workers’ personal property
But VA is still trying to cut your pay and conditions in the following ways:
- Changing ordinary hours of work to 0700 – 1900 (it is currently 0700 – 1800, so some workers would lose penalty rates)
- Not counting sick leave when calculating overtime
- Amending the overtime trigger for part time employees from 8 hours to 10 hours a day
- Reducing personal leave to 13 days a year (currently 18 days a year)
What about a pay increase?
VA has now offered a 2% annual pay increase to ground staff. This is less than every other group of employees that VA has bargained with. VA says that in order to pay any more they want “productivity increases”. But they also say that recent productivity increases like the new boarding procedures won’t count in the calculations. Do you think that’s fair? Come and tell us what you think.
Watch this space – your local ASU delegates will be in contact shortly with details of our upcoming activities at your port.
If you’re not already a member – now is the time to join the ASU: www.asu.asn.au/asujoin.
If you have any questions, contact your local workplace delegate: (download the full bulletin here details) 
Virgin Australia Bulletin # 11 - 24 August 2017