We met yet again with ICON today to iron out the details of their agreement offer to you.
At the meeting we put forward the feedback you gave us when we last met, including:
- Personal leave: we told ICON you need to see this upped to more than the mere legal minimum of 10 days – especially when your original claim was 21 days, and we asked ICON again if there’s any room to move.
- Comparisons to the Tasmanian Public sector: the Tas PS have a 20% standing market allowance on top of their base rate, as well as annual leave loading penalties paid when they take their annual leave. They also have further broad banding arrangements that can be utilised for workers to specialise in certain areas beyond their classification structure with increased pay. We have lingering concerns around these points because we don’t think the comparisons they’ve made are exactly apples to apples.
- Clarification about the WFH policy when COVID positive: ICON say their policy is case by case and that you’ll still be asked to exhaust your own sick leave, rather than have a separate entitlement for pandemic leave or an increased personal leave balance (which formed part of your claims). We think this is inappropriate given the nature of the industry you work in.
- Early renegotiation clause: we put forward your concerns about renegotiation and ICON are keen to have a six-month renegotiation clause, which they say is standard across their agreements.
- Backpay: ICON said that if negotiations drag on beyond 1 July, backpay and backdating of entitlements are on the table, meaning you shouldn’t miss the pay rise you’re owed.
We also talked through some of what we want to see included in drafting, such as the span of hours and overtime as well as your entitlement to long service leave. ICON told us that when it comes to LSL, they’d have it refer to the Tasmanian legislation which awards you 8 and 2/3 weeks.
ICON did commit to provide us with a rough draft of the agreement as soon as they can so that we can have a look at how they’re proposing to address some of the drafting issues like the ones mentioned above. Once we receive it, we’ll show it to you and make sure we again provide your feedback before our next meeting in two weeks.
They also committed to showing us how the calculations for wages were arrived at and provide us more information on how other ICONs nationally tackle annual leave loading.
Ultimately, it’s not all bad or ugly and there are some positives in their offer, but it’s clear after speaking to you that they need to move on some of the major outstanding issues like personal leave, pay rates in certain parts of the classification structure, and that you need some more info on some of the details.
What’s even clearer is that ICON are looking at this as a ‘total package’ offer, and they all but threatened to take away wages if they had to put increases to personal leave and other big-ticket items back on the table.
Now it’s on you to tell us what you want to do when it comes down to brass tacks, because it’s your agreement and we’re led by you.
Frankly, ICON don’t care how many times the union organiser at the table tells them they need to move on personal leave, and it’s your voices and your involvement that will make the difference – so we’ll be coming around to talk to you more and make a plan, but if you want to push for more we’ll need you all on board.
We’ll tee up a meeting with you soon, but in the meantime feel free to contact us on [email protected] or 1300 880 032 if you’ve got questions or want to know more.