The TWU (VIC/TAS Branch) wishes to advise that protected industrial action involving its CDC and Transdev members planned for Thursday, 16 August, has been suspended.
The decision to suspend the planned 24-hour stoppages was made by TWU negotiating committee members after CDC and Transdev both increased offers today.
TWU (VIC/TAS Branch) Secretary and TWU National Vice-President John Berger said the new offers met the union’s claims and were a big win for the TWU.
"Our members were low-balled by the operators in the original offers they made to the drivers and the drivers decided they would fight for a decent increase," Mr Berger said.
"These drivers are hard-working members of the community and have mouths to feed and bills to pay and could not see any future benefit in what was originally on the table and they fought and forced the hand of these companies.
"The win today is the result of a long campaign where our members stayed strong and united and proves to all Australian workers what can be achieved when workers stick together."
The new offers fall within what the TWU was demanding on behalf of members and do not trade off any existing conditions.
"As a show of good faith in the bargaining process we have called off tomorrow’s action involving CDC and Transdev members to allow members the opportunity to vote on the proposals," Mr Berger said.
•The offers made to CDC and Transdev members were 4% per annum, with a 2% increase every six months.
•The increase will be back paid to July 2018.
•The offers also included a one-off $1800 lump sum superannuation payment to be paid to each employee later this year. This reflects a 1% increase on top of mandatory employer superannuation payments.
Both CDC and Transdev members reserve the right to take further protected actions should the new offer fail to be approved by members. The formal voting process will take up to four weeks.
In regards to CDC, State Treasurer Tim Pallis and Transport Minister Jacinta Allen requested to meet with TWU (VIC/TAS Branch) Secretary John Berger and bus organisers late yesterday in a bid to avert the planned actions.
Following a productive meeting, Government met with CDC and the company returned to the table earlier today with an improved offer.
The TWU CDC negotiating committee met this morning and decided to put the increased offer to all CDC members for vote.
Following the decision of CDC to improve its offer and CDC members to withdraw their involvement in tomorrow’s actions, Transdev improved its own offer late this afternoon after further negotiations with the TWU.
The Transdev negotiating committee elected to postpone the action after the operator mirrored the CDC wage offer. Transdev also had to agree to other terms that did not apply to CDC.
Negotiations between CDC and Transdev and the TWU have been underway for several months.
CDC was the first major operator to begin negotiating the 2018 Victorian Bus Industry Agreement.
"CDC are not the only Victorian bus operator to be negotiating wages this year and our members are heavily represented across the bus industry and they all want the chance to stand up and fight for a living wage," Mr Berger said.
"And they will."
The TWU have also held two meetings each with operators Ventura and Dysons.
Although we are still only in the early stages of negotiations with these operators, talks are progressing in good faith and we hope for positive outcomes.
CONTACT:
TWU Communications Manager Jason Gregory
0430 931 404 / [email protected] ---
/Public Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) may be of a point-in-time nature, edited for clarity, style and length. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s). View in full here.
