AWU WA Magazine

BRANCH SECRETARY'S REPORT

All workers desire fair wages and conditions of work and most would say that wages and working conditions in Australia are amongst the best in the world.

Many young workers have taken those conditions for granted. They can be forgiven because many of them have not had to make the sacrifices that others have to achieve these improvements.

There are many older workers however who should know better.

Four weeks annual leave and leave loading were only won in the 1970s and the 38-hour week was not achieved until 1983. Most workers did not receive industry superannuation until the late 1980s or early 1990s.

During the 1980s unions entered into an accord with the Labor Government that traded wage restraint for significant improvements in family and social security benefits.

Nothing worthwhile comes easily and nothing should be taken for granted.

Today, Australia ranks second behind Korea in the developed world in relation to the most hours worked and much of these are unpaid.

Why has the deregulation of the labour market been pushed so hard?

It has led to a rapid casualisation of the workforce.

The role of trade unions has never been more important than it is today.

It has been through the collective actions of workers working through their unions that the lifestyle most of us enjoy was achieved.

The introduction of individual contracts and Australian Workplace Agreements is aimed at weakening the collective and reducing the bargaining power of workers who after all have nothing else to sell put their labour.
Many of these new forms of agreements offer attractive wage increases upfront in return for trading off hard won conditions such as shift penalties, overtime rates and allowances.

I have rarely seen one that requires an employer to talk to his employees about changes taking place or containing a redundancy provision.

Nothing is given for nothing and invariably what happens is that over time the increased wages offered are whittled back without any return.

So why would someone sign an agreement that offers worse conditions than are contained in a union negotiated enterprise agreement?

In most cases it is because they feel there is no choice and that is why AWAs and individual contracts are wrong.

Australians of my generation are in serious danger of leaving our children with relatively worse wages and conditions than we ourselves have enjoyed.

The breakdown in the collective has been able to develop because of the unfortunate rise in the attitude of individualism or the attitude that says: "I'm alright, I can look after myself!" whereas the concept of unionism has always based itself on the principle of "The strong are prepared to make sacrifices to look after the weak."

If you take things too much for granted and are not on occasion prepared to make a sacrifice for something worthwhile you are more than likely to find out, as many have to their cost, that what you thought you had has simply disappeared.

OFFSHORE MOBILE DRILLING

According to a recent decision from Deputy President McCarthy the Union continues to maintain its perfect record against dismissals from the drilling companies.

Diamond Offshore on the Ocean General while drilling for Woodside in the Timor Sea fell fowl of Woodside in respect to "too many injuries".

Their response was typical in that they chose to blame the crew. As such they sought a scapegoat in their traditional response of "If there are safety problems then sack someone".

In this case, they sacked the dogman for apparently getting fuel from the engine room without permission of the motorman. This resulted in the dismissal of the Union member.

Whilst initially the Commission decided to reinstate the member, Daniel Robertson, this was appealed on the basis that the Rig went to stack some 7 months later. As a result of this Appeal and the Union's Appeal that Diamond Offshore pay compensation the Full Bench decided that Mr. Robertson should be compensated for the period to the time the Rig went to stack. This includes payment for his redundancy for service with Diamond.

It should be noted that while this case proceeded through the Commission for the so called unsafe employee Daniel worked in the North Sea progressing to the level of an offshore crane driver. This above all should prove that there was no safety issue.

And Yes, Diamond Offshore has done it again. The Ocean Epoch whilst in transit to Perth the OIM decided that they would not pay over cycle to employees who were forced to work 5 weeks straight. An employee who sought to challenge the decision even though he was correct and entitled to the payment was run off in Perth when the Rig reached Fremantle.

The employee concerned who at this stage cannot be named due to proceedings in the West Australian Industrial Relations Commission, was run off as he stayed back to seen Chris Cain from the MUA when Chris visited the Rig. He wanted some advice. As part of the AWU and MUA alliance Chris was happy to speak with the member and provide him with advice.

As a result of this Diamond ran the member off. When Chris Cain and Mike Llewellyn attended the induction to speak with employees Diamond insisted the employees leave the room. To their credit all but 3 of the employees remained and confirmed the member's report of what had occurred on the crew change.

The real question is what have Diamond Offshore got to fear from employees exercising their rights to speak with and join the Union. This case is being run on the basis of discrimination against a person seeking advice from the Union.

ENSCO 104 Reports

The practice of an arrogant Rig company is typified by ENSCO who operate the ENSCO 104 on the Bayu Undan field. There have been ongoing problems with this job and the turnover of labour should have raised concerns with Philips Conoco who has commissioned ENSCO to perform the work.

ENSCO decided to change the flights so employees have to catch a flight at 10:30 at night in Perth arriving at the rig at approx 10:00am the next day. As a result they instructed Total Marine to deduct the Travel Payment of 16 hours from the employees. Unfortunately for Total Marine who initially complied and removed the 16-hour payment from their employees, about half the Rigs are members of the AWU and of course the Union took up their case.

While the members are all on Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) it does not prevent the Union from assisting its members.

As a result of our intervention with the Union sending Total Marine a copy of a Magistrate Court's summons for non-compliance with their AWA which we were intending to lodge, Total Marine decided to reinstate the payments. This payment was reinstated for all employees even though the Union only acted for its members.

It does demonstrate that even though you are covered by an AWA the Union can still represent you and you can still act as a group in the tradition of the offshore industry where you all stand together.

ENSCO 102 coming to Bass Straight

The Ensco 102 will be operating in Bass Straight and will not be covered by AWAs. It is an area of strength for the AWU and the Rig will be covered by a collective agreement. We will keep members informed of the Agreement but you can be assured it will be an improvement on Ensco and Total Marine Non-Union AWAs.

RIG SAFETY

A recent incident on the ENSCO 104 appears not to have attracted the attention of either ENSCO or Philips Conoco.

The Union was provided with photos of an Air Tugger that the Tool Pusher directed employees to operate. This was despite the fact that the equipment had been tagged out as "unsafe to operate" by the ENSCO Safety officer. Take a look at the picture attached.

This should prompt a number of questions:

1. What is ENSCO'S real attitude to safety? Nothing if it is supervision
2. What is Philips Conoco's attitude to deliberate breaches of safety and tagging rules? Unknown at press time.
3. What has the regulator done? Nothing
4. What would happen if an employee refused to use the equipment?

The answer to the last question is it is illegal to direct an employee to perform an unsafe act. Any employee so directed should advise the supervisor concerned that they intend to make a complaint to the relevant authority. Should the supervisor then threaten dismissal, the matter should be reported to the Union and then applications made in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and a complaint lodged against the Individual Supervisor and the Company with the Equal Opportunity Commission for victimisation in employment.

Remember the AWU and MUA Alliance is alive and well.

Just keep in mind the Union's win record for union members who have sought our help in cases of dismissals.

Companies 0 - Union 9

Most of these members are still working in the industry. Members who believe they are being black banned in the industry should contact the Union for advice on how to proceed against the Companies. The Union has also been successful in gaining employment for members who believed that they were black listed.

GRAIN INDUSTRY - GLEN ANDERTON

At the time of writing The CBH Country Operators Agreement is in the last stages of negotiation. Negotiations have been protracted with one or two false starts but now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The main thrust of CBH negotiators has been to implement a quality/productivity based structure with bonuses being paid twice yearly dependent on individual assessments.

The country Operators have been strongly opposed to this concept as they do not feel confident that it can be implemented on an impartial basis. The Negotiating Committee have agreed to a trial period of one year to be run on a District rather than Individual basis and this will be part of the proposed agreement that will be voted on in mid to late June.

The rest of the package contains a 10% wage increase over the life of the agreement, long awaited & scheduled boosts to the away from home allowances, the removal of seasonal employees and a grading of receival sites to reflect the complexity involved in running some of the "Strategic Receival Points".

It would seem from conversations with CBH executives that the system of Incentives for quality and productivity are the way forward from their viewpoint, this will become more apparent when the Geraldton Albany & Esperance Port Agreements come up for renewal in 2005.

With the onset of, so far, promising rainfalls throughout the wheat belt CBH are looking ahead to a possible bumper harvest, this should prove an opportune time for them to display their willingness to allow employees a greater degree of autonomy to show initiative in running depots.

This will be the making or breaking of their incentive system, so it is time for them to back all the rhetoric that has been such a main component of discussion for the last 6 months.

If Messrs Mencshely, Tutt & Ainsworth can get their system working and operators see that they are allowed to use their initiative and be rewarded it could be a whole new ball game in the wheat belt. The litmus test will be to see if middle management can pick up the ball and run with it.

CONSERVATION & LAND MANAGEMENT(CALM)- GLEN ANDERTON

EBA Progress

The Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) employees are negotiating their EBA again and this time around have a lot more to say to the employer about issues they want covered in the new agreement.

Fire Service payments are a hot topic right now with workers adamant they will get some changes made in light of the amount of Fire Service Availability (Stand by) they are being required to do. CALM is insistent on changes occurring to the Fire Service provisions agreement, which it wants to apply equally with respect to all unions, and to that end has put a proposal to all of the unions.

At this point in time it has been rejected on two occasions by the AWU. On the other hand the CSA/CPSU has apparently accepted the agreement as it was supported by a majority of 80% of their people.

This figure seems to be quite high to the AWU as we have heard complaint after complaint from workers the CSA were assumed to cover. Well, as it pans out , their 80% represents the vote taken by their members only. This is fair enough I suppose when you consider that it's the same with all unions in that the members are the only votes counted in any decision that dictates what the union does. However, irrespective of this, the 80% is not a true percentage of the total workforce vote (Which says different!).

The AWU workforce has been quite staunch in its position to not accept the package and that position of the workforce continues to be NO each time CALM has put any changes to them. They are prepared to hold out for as long as required for a decent package negotiated with genuine input from the workers.

Retirement of Alf Allen

Other news from Calm relates to Alf Allen who retired on Friday the 23rd January and was presented with a certificate of appreciation by myself , Glen Anderton, the AWU's CALM organiser. Alf work for Calm for twenty-seven years and was a valued worker respected by both management and his fellow AWU workmates. Alf's good sense of humour played an important part in helping him keep his sanity in a workforce made up of comedians and practical jokers at his workplace at Dwellingup in the South West.

Red Action Fires

The simultaneous breakout of red action fires at Collie and Bridgetown had crews busy over the Xmas period again, but this time the fires were a serious threat to the towns' people. Yet again the Calm crews have pulled the rabbit out of the hat what with reduced crews because of the silly season they achieved marvellous results without serious damage to property or loss of life.

These fires could have been equivalent to the Dwellingup Fire Disaster of the 1960's where the whole township was destroyed, but with the dedication of the workers and good management, the fires were brought under control saving peoples homes and property.

Both townships have since passed on their sincere gratitude to the Calm workers for their tremendous effort.