NUW’s “tough and smart” approach pays off for Mitre 10 members
Monday July 15, 2002
Difficulties arose because of the refusal of Mitre 10 management to move from their offer of 4% per annum wage increases for a 2 year agreement. In contrast, members insisted that 5% increases were fair increases that should be paid by the company.
In accordance with its usual practice, the NUW involved the workplace delegates in the negotiations. Delegate Peter Mahoney, and co-delegates Michael Roberts and Cheryl Bristow played a significant role in the negotiations. As part of the Union’s emphasis on resourcing and training delegates, the Queensland Branch of the Union conducts regular training programmes for delegates and activists throughout the year. Fortunately, earlier this year, Peter attended an NUW delegates training course. Peter credited the course and the skills and knowledge he picked up in the training with helping him greatly in successfully getting through the bargaining process.
In order to achieve a breakthrough in negotiations, the NUW representatives proposed developing a “key performance indicator” to measure stock loss in exchange for the company agreeing to the member's demand of 5% and 5%. This proposal was backed up with a resolution to take action at the end of the month if agreement could not be reached. After some further negotiation, an agreement was finalised.
Key features of agreement:
- Wages
5% 1/7/02
4% 1/7/03 + 1% KPI* - 18 members reclassified
- increased casual loading and 7 casuals converted to permanent
- Improved Long Service Leave entitlements
- Improved redundancy entitlements
Last modified 2005-03-10 11:35 AM
