Last week we met with the Respect bargaining team to continue negotiations for your new Enterprise Agreement.
At the meeting, Respect advised they were still considering several of our claims and would get back to us on those in due course, including our claim for compensation when working short-staffed.
Several good things to come out of the meeting were Respect’s willingness to provide 6 weeks parental leave across the board for both nursing and non-nursing staff, rather than the current format where some employees receive parental leave and others do not.
There was also the commitment that afternoon and night shift penalties would be increased to 17.5% for all employees, and they also accepted our claim of 20 days paid Domestic Violence leave for those needing access.
A couple of items that were not so good was the removal of the first aid allowance and paid police checks to areas that had been receiving it.
Respect also advised that home care workers would not be placed under the new Agreement and that they would begin bargaining for a separate Agreement for those workers soon. We are yet to hear the full detail on this when this will occur.
We will keep you updated on all things bargaining as we progress through negotiations.
If you have any questions regarding bargaining or any other workplace matter, please feel free to give HACSUassist a call on 1300 880 032 for further discussions.