5 October 2004

Castricum Brothers

EBA vs AWA - Where Are We?

Current Agreement
The EBA is current until the courts decide otherwise. The company has indicated in the AIRC that they have no wish to pursue AWAs if the EBA is put aside.

Federal Award
The company has also stated that they do not wish to go Federal Award - they realize that those conditions will not attract people to work at Castricums nor hold those already working. The members have indicated that they will not work under the Federal Award.

AWAs
Despite the Company trying every trick in the book to get people to sign AWAs there has been, not surprisingly, a very low voluntary uptake. Of those that were forced to sign, few returned after the break. The company has made a condition of accepting new employment that every new employee must sign an AWA before they start work. Not surprisingly there has not been a great influx of new employees.

New EBA
The Company has indicated that if a new EBA was to be agreed then the new EBA would supersede the AWAs. They also said they were not interested in talking about a new EBA. So at present not a lot is happening.

Industrial Action
We are presently under a Protective Bargaining Period; the Consultative Committee has been given, by a unanimous decision of the meeting, the authority to initiate Industrial action as and when they see fit. We have no desire to interrupt supply of product to customers but even Commissioner Simmonds has said that unless there is a prior agreement reached then this course of action would seem to be inevitable.

Proposals for a New Agreement
Employees who voluntarily signed an AWA will be employed under those conditions until the expiration of that AWA. Anyone who was required to sign an AWA as a pre-employment condition has the option of being employed under the AWA or the EBA.
The key issues are wages - hours of work - public holiday weeks.
What we are looking for in a new Agreement is the 2000 Agreement as its base but incorporating some of the variation as it applies to 10 hour days within the criteria set out below.

New Technology
Introduction of new technology in the boning room is another issue that must be addressed. We would be looking at a similar understanding to that of the killfloor. We support the introduction of new technology on the basis that jobs will remain until fully taken over by a particular machine or machines, that the work load on other individual stations not be increased and remuneration not be decreased. Composition of permanent teams as set out below would have to be adjusted as technology is introduced.

Wage increases
We propose the following clause.
"Wage increases will be determined by the Melbourne weighting of the Australian Consumer Price Index as published on a quarterly basis by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The first wage increase will be for the period from certification of the Agreement until the first quarterly CPI adjustment thereafter. The initial percentage has been calculated by adding the quarterly figures from Dec 1999 through to June 2004 ( 0.7+1+0.7+ .8+0.3+1.1+0.6+0.5+0.9+0.9+0.7+0.7+0.9+1.4+0+0.6+0.2+1.0+0.3 =16 %).
All further increases will be for all purposes of the agreement and implemented one week after the official publication of the CPI. A zero or negative increase will have no effect on wage rates."

Why choose the CPI as the basis of wage increases? The CPI is a measure of relative values taken over a very wide range of goods and services. A score of 0 would mean that the status quo remains unchanged. A negative change means that the costs of living have become cheaper. A positive change means that the costs of living have become dearer.

The Consultative Committee has taken the view that as long as we can maintain relativity that is acceptable. The CPI is widely used by government in determining automatic increases in all number of fees and charges, and for the most part when wage disputes reach the courts the increase in the CPI is the determining factor in reaching agreement. While 16% may seem a large increase, it has to be remembered that the period we have been denied is 19 quarters or 4 ž years.
The wage increase for the next 12 months calculated historically from the previous 12 months would have only been 2.1% if the Company had kept up to date on wage increases.

PAY RATES

Kill Floor

Slaughtermen low tally rate was $1.618 x 16% = $0.25888 new rate is therefore $1.8769

Slaughtermen mid tally rate was $2.189 x 16% = $0.35024 new rate is therefore $2.5392

Labourers low tally was $1.324 x 16% = $0.21184 new rate is therefore $1.5358

Labourers bonus rate was $1.129 x 16% = $0.18064 new rate is therefore $1.3096

Waiting Time was $23.59 x 16% = $3.77 new rate is therefore $27.36

Boning Room

New Starter was $13.40 x 16% = $2.144 new rate is therefore $15.54
Labourer was $14.39 x 16% = $2.3024 new rate is therefore $16.69
Knifehand / QA was $15.73 x 16% = $2.5168 new rate is therefore $18.25
Boner was $17.92 x 16% = $2.8672 new rate is therefore $20.79

Meal was $5.87 x 16% = $0.94 new rate is therefore $6.81

Training was $5.87 x 16% = $0.9392 new rate is therefore $6.81

Chain speed.
Based on 16 per man per hour 33 man chain speed of 528 per hour plus 22 as a waiting time 'safety net'. Manning may be varied with the addition of new technology but the prime consideration in determining manning will be that individual work loading will not be increased. Stations to remain until fully replaced by technology. Balanced team concept will apply. As of September 2004 the full manning of slaughtermen is 28 + 2. Maximum chain speed is 550 per hour.

Hours of Work
One of the major issues is working time per day. The 10 hour day is universally unpopular. It seems fine on paper but the real life situation is far different. It is noted that the first action of the company when they stood down the Boning Room workers and replaced workers with staff was to go back to 8 hour days. We do accept that in the height of the season it "MAY" be necessary to go to a 10 hour pattern to get the production volumes the Company desires.

Production Patterns - Kill Floor
Will be determined by required production in a weekly period.
Both 8 and 10 hour patterns will be worked as production dictates in the flowing manner:
Less than 11,484 stock units per week    8 hour pattern over 3 days
More than 11,484 but less than 15,312   8 hour pattern over 4 days
More than 15,312 but less than 19,140   8 hour pattern over 5 days
More than 19,140 but less than 20,262   8 hour pattern over 5 days with addition of up to 30 mins overtime/day
More than 20,262 but less than 23,980   10 hour pattern 5 days per week

Within the patterns the size of the slaughter team will be altered to work a balance team to as close to maximum sticking time with due regard to appropriate chain speed.

In the Boning room after both lines are at full production one line could work 10 hour pattern and the other 8 hour - both increasing to 10 hour if production level requires it.

Production teams
There will be established base teams - determined by minimum teams required to run 8
hours patterns plus 2 for RDO roster - 3 for leave - 2 for sick leave.

Kill Floor
On the kill floor minimum team will be as of September 2004 28 + 2 slaughtermen plus sufficient labourers to man all wages positions required.

Boning Room
Will be the number of sawmen, boners, knifehands, QAs, labourers ( as wages employees ) required to fully man one line.

These will be the minimum teams for any production to take place on plant in those areas. The base teams will primarily be on the basis of seniority within each sub category. Sub categories to operate the same principle as step-up slaughtermen. 6 sawmen, 12 boners, 4 QAs , 50 labourers and knifehands. In the event of there being no employee being available to fill a sub category position then employees will be promoted into the team on a temporary basis.

When two lines are required the amount to be employed will be permanent wages employees. There will be larger percentages of these people trained to do more positions as they will be the pool for the skills needed to supply the experienced labour to work the fifth day option. The more multi-skilled the employee the more chance after seniority of getting into the number one team.
Those employed as base labourers to fill out the required number to operate the fifth day will be casual labourers ( same as the kill floor) moving to permanent only when a vacancy in the permanent team arises.

Training to be done by competent wages employees in their respective sub categories.

Casuals
A pool of casuals will be established. To be used in base positions to allow the team to take entitlements. Casuals only join the main teams and convert to permanent as people leave permanently but should be trained to take any position. May join the team at any level as long as there is not a member of the permanent team who can fill a vacant position or is willing to be trained to fill a higher paid position .

Week in Which Public Holiday Falls
Probably the most controversial aspect of the 10 hour pattern has been the issues surrounding what happens in the week a Public Holiday occurs. After 4 visits to the Industrial Relations Court all that is clear is that the way it was written up in the variation to the Agreement is a mess. It is clear that the company wants increased production during the summer period when most public holidays occur. But what annoyed most people is that they were unwillingly to pay the appropriate rates and at the same time tried to get extra working days into the year.

Public holidays will be paid on the number of hours of the pattern worked as they appear. If the company requires full production in the week of a public holiday the employees will offer themselves for work. The 5th day will be paid for at normal rate and a day off taken at a later date, when production levels are lower, at the same rate.

Sick Pay
Slaughterfloor
95% of maximum tally - offset by decreasing the amount of the initial wage increase using the same methodology to adjust AWA employees wages with, in their agreement, the abolition of RDOs.

New Classification in the Boning Room
Sawyer - based on Boners base rate but increased hourly rate equalivant to $25 per day above boners rate ($20.79 + $2.50 $23.29).
Sawyers will normally work hour on hour off - usually doing labouring or light boning jobs on the hour off, if the boning doesn't interfere with the boners rotation.
There will be additional sawyers trained so that there is a pool that operates the same way as step-up slaughtermen.

RDOs
RDO rosters to be set up for each section making available an RDO every 6 weeks.
No RDOs the day before or after a public holiday.
RDOs can be taken on the day or swapped, with management approval, with another employee.
RDOs to be available at all times within a roster or if there is no available work. Delete clause that requires 72 hours worth before one can be given.

Attendance Scheme
To assist in getting a full attendance during the period that the company would like full production we propose the following scheme to operate from October till April:
For every consecutive 20 days worked $80 meat voucher to be redeemed at the company butcher shop. No exceptions to days off. Includes RDO roster. Maximum yearly $500.
Advantages for the company in that the cost of meat would be lower than the retail value, employees would be more inclined to spend extra when redeeming vouchers and it falls within the $500 Fringe Benefit limit.

Finally a word on preference.
There has been some suggestion that those on AWAs take preference on some matters - first to return to work after a break was the highlighted example. This interpretation is twisting the meaning of preference to give a false and misleading impression.
It can be argued that where there is an almost identical clause between an AWA and the EBA, then for those who have signed the AWA the clause in that AWA applies. An example would be pay rates for a particular classification.
But where a person signs an AWA and there is no corresponding relative clause, then this is not necessarily the case. RDOs would be an example. The AWAs do not contain RDOs so therefore this takes preference. Similarly there is no warning system in the AWA.
Drug testing is included in the AWA but is not part of the EBA, so those on AWAs can be randomly drug tested while those covered by the EBA can't.
Those on AWAs have also signed away any rights to seniority. What they are saying is that they don't care about when and where they are placed. That there is a seniority clause in the EBA must take preference over one that has been given away. Those on an EBA must be placed before those that have signed AWAs.

SUPERANNUATION - 11% DECLARED
The Meat Industry Employees Superannuation Fund has just announced its annual interest rate of 11%. This is an excellent result for a conservative investment portfolio and about double the interest banks have been offering on fixed term deposits.
MIESF has consistently out-performed 95% of other Super Funds. It should always be remembered that this Fund was established by the Victorian Branch of the AMIEU who paid all its initial costs back in 1981. It is a Fund the Union and its members can be justifiably proud of.