QUBE Members Enterprise Agreement Update – Meeting No.5

Thursday 1^st September 2022, your Locomotive Division Enterprise Agreement Committee met with QUBE Management to continue bargaining for your replacement  Enterprise Agreement. 

This was our first EA drafting meeting where we started working through a draft EA clause  by clause.  

It is disappointing that at this stage QUBE have rejected a number of your claims including:  

• Term of the Agreement –Sunset Clause.  

• Redundancy – Any increase in the redundancy and your claim to have Personal  Leave paid out when made redundant. 

• Superannuation –All Employees be moved to 14% Superannuation.  • Annual Leave – Increase to 6 weeks Annual Leave and to add 20% Annual Leave  Loading when on Annual Leave. 

We advised QUBE Management that whilst they may have rejected the above claims,  your claims remain, and delegates/members will decide what is acceptable or not in a final  Agreement. 

Whilst a 3-year Term for the Agreement has been discussed, this will be determined  subject to the final wage offer and delegate/member feedback. 

Discussions then turned to the following items. 

• Annual Leave Rosters – We asked why there wasn’t an Annual Leave Roster  available to everyone and what process does QUBE follow to make sure that Annual  Leave is fair and reasonable. They advised that there is a process and that QUBE  Management supply guidelines on how it works. We advised that current practice  is not fair and that this practice needs to be fixed. 

• Public Holidays – Payment for coming in on a Public Holiday when the day  is an RDO. 

• Swab Testing – QUBE have agreed to include “Swab Testing” as an addition to  breath and urine testing, but we are awaiting wording before this can be agreed.

• Temporary Transfer allowance – QUBE advised that your claim to increase the  Temporary Transfer Allowance will be part of the whole wage offer. A Notice of  Dispute was issued last week following the meeting to QUBE for not increasing this  allowance as outlined in the current Enterprise Agreement. 

• Classification Structure – Discussions occurred on the following: o Inclusion of Terminal Driver 
  • Automatic progression between classifications 
  • Driver Trainer Rates of pay 
  • Qualifications 

• Wage Increases – QUBE Management advised that they only discuss wage  increases once all clauses have been finalised. 

• Retention Bonus – QUBE agree to the idea but stated it will form part of the final  wage offer. 

• Rostering – Discussions occurred on a number of issues including, RDO’s,  Cancelled Shifts, Lift Up/Lay Back, the timing on when the Working Roster is sent  out and Master Rosters. (QUBE stated that they survey employees and 70% of  employees were happy with the current rostering). 

Your Negotiating Committee will soon be sending out a survey to all members to gather more information on what the main Rostering Issues. 

Our next meeting is scheduled for 1 October 2022 at Cooks River. The Negotiation team  would like to thank Paul Kenny (representing Sydney) in these negotiations after Scott  Studman’s transfer to Port Kembla.

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