News
31st December, 2019
Summary of Health Select Good Faith Bargaining Order Conference
Yesterday (30 December 2019) the Victorian Ambulance Union Incorporated (VAU) attended the Fair Work Commission in relation to our application alleging Health Select breached the good faith bargaining requirements under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). Specifically, we allege that Health Select had breached the good faith bargaining requirements by publishing a wage comparison table comparing their proposed wage rates under the new agreement to other NEPT employers (Table) which was misleading, and failing to notify the VAU that they had decided to put their proposed agreement to a vote before telling their employees.
During the conference in the Fair Work Commission Health Select admitted that there were errors in the Table and in this way the document was misleading. They also acknowledged that they had not corrected these errors despite being on notice to these errors from 13 December 2019 when the VAU first informed them. When asked why they had not corrected these errors to date, Health Select had no response.
Despite this admission Health Select refused to correct the misleading information it has provided to you and has also refused to stop the vote.
The VAU have informed the Commission that we want our application to proceed to arbitration for the Commission to determine whether Health Select have breached the good faith bargaining requirements.
In the meantime, while the vote started by Health Select will remain open until next Monday 6 January 2019, the Commission ordered Health Select that the vote must not be counted until after the arbitration is held and a decision is handed down. This means there will be no count of the vote until the VAU’s application is heard and a finding made as to whether Health Select have breached the good faith bargaining requirements. To be clear, there was no direction from the Commission that the vote proceed as suggested by Health Select. This is another example of Health Select sending its own staff misleading information.
Health Select have rushed the agreement through and have made changes to the agreement right before the agreement was given to its employees to consider. In addition, they have failed to correct information which they have acknowledged is misleading, which has meant employees may be voting yes to an agreement without having all the facts.
The VAU strongly recommends that members VOTE NO to this proposed agreement.
There have only been three bargaining meetings in which members have had the ability to argue for improvements to their wages and working conditions.
Typically a normal bargaining process would involve dozens of meetings over several months to bring about tangible improvements to your working lives.
Why is this bargaining process so rushed?
Given the Agreement expired in 2013, it is not clear why there is all of a sudden a rush to have this agreement approved now.
You should send a strong message to your employer that you want to exercise your right to bargain in a meaningful and respectful way.
VOTE NO SO WE CAN CONTINUE BARGINING TO IMPROVE YOUR WAGES AND CONDITIONS.
In Solidarity,