Local Agreements

Identifying if any Local Agreements have been made at Sub Division level both in RailCorp and/or Freight Operators has recently become an issue for the Division. It is also difficult for the Division to keep up with the nature of any such agreements once they are aware of them.

We need to be careful about entering into “local agreements” which change conditions of employment as contained within Enterprise Agreements and/or Rostering Conditions. No changes will or can be recognised by the Division unless they have been signed by the Divisional Secretary and gone through the normal Divisional Governing Body approval process and in most cases, voted on by all affected members.

Your EA is a legally binding and enforceable Agreement and cannot be changed by a Local Agreement unless the proper and legally enforceable process has been followed. In the case of an EBA, this would in most cases require a new vote on the EBA and approval process with FWA.

It is important that negotiated and voted on conditions of employment are not “sold off” or negotiated away as a “favour” for the boss or for short term gain.