QUBE management are cowards- fact check

QUBE’s Newsflash of 6 July 2023 to its employees tries to shift blame for a cowardly bargaining backflip (orchestrated by Dan Coulton to cover up his own mistakes) to the RTBU – let’s review what really happened. 

What is the ‘hourly rate’ dispute? 

The RTBU alleges that QUBE’s practice of assuming the rates in the enterprise agreement are ‘all-up’ rates has resulted in a significant underpayment to employees. Our position is that clause 4.2 of the Enterprise Agreement, which defines ‘hourly rate’, does not indicate that the rates in the agreement are ‘all-up’ rates. 

As such the RTBU alleges QUBE employees are entitled to penalty rates for working afternoon, early morning, night shifts and weekends, and are entitled to be paid other shift allowances. This results in a significant underpayment for every QUBE employee, which may be worth up to about $30,000 per employee per year for the past 6 years, and $30,000 every year moving forward. 

Did QUBE know about the ‘hourly rate’ dispute? 

Yes, QUBE knew about the ‘hourly rate’ dispute and has known since February 2023. QUBE dismissed the dispute as being of no importance, because in their opinion the RTBU was clearly wrong about clause 4.2. If the RTBU is so ‘wrong’ why has QUBE spat the dummy so dramatically now? 

We have attached to this Newsflash an email from Dan Coulton to Peter Matthews (RTBU Legal Officer) discussing clause 4.2 being changed from 1 March 2023. 

Did QUBE know about the Federal Court proceedings before agreeing to the new EA? 

Yes, QUBE had a copy of the filed Federal Court proceedings, before they agreed to the bargaining outcome achieved on Monday. They reviewed the documents, indicated that they were no barrier to agreement, and agreed to the bargaining outcome. 

How did the RTBU become aware of the underpayment? 

The RTBU will occasionally undertake a review of some of the hundreds of enterprise agreements that apply to its members. This is an onerous task, that involves reading the agreement, and comparing it to working rosters, hour sheets, and pay slips to ensure that everyone is being paid properly. 

It was in this process that we discovered the underpayments – the RTBU had previously assumed that QUBE employees were being paid correctly. Instead, we found widespread wage theft. 

QUBE refers to ‘existing arrangements’ what are they? 

The ‘existing arrangement’ that QUBE refers to, and is trying to garner employee sympathy for, is actually a chronic and systemic practice of underpayment and wage theft that has robbed employees of tens of thousands of dollars each year. 

Whilst QUBE has probably stolen millions of dollars from their employees, they have still paid millions of dollars to their directors in the same period – that’s the ‘existing arrangement’. 

Can QUBE delay the new EA by 12 months? 

No, you will have a new agreement, whether QUBE likes it or not, well before 12 months. 

QUBE says it will vary the 2015 and 2019 EA’s – what does this mean? 

QUBE can apply to vary existing agreements to weasel out of an underpayment, but it is unlikely to work. QUBE constantly runs and loses these types of cases because they are frequently accused of underpaying their employees. It is nothing more than a stalling tactic. 

Why is this all happening now? 

Clearly QUBE have received legal advice recently, probably indicating that the RTBU case against them is very strong, and instead of accepting they have been underpaying employees, they are trying to extort a settlement out of the bargaining process by holding the EA to ransom and doing everything they can to keep the rort going. 

What happens next? 

The RTBU will engage with the Fair Work Commission process to try and enforce the original agreement. 

Otherwise QUBE members have approved industrial action that will assist in bringing a resolution about sooner rather than later. 

The Federal Court case will proceed. Remember only RTBU members will be included in any settlement, which clearly is worth a lot of money! 

In the meantime, you can contact Dan Coulton and let him know you wont be bullied out of your EA guaranteed entitlements! 

Download the Newsflash here.