Greater clarity on key bargaining issues

Following a further bargaining negotiation meeting with CSIRO senior management this week – set against the backdrop of the response to the COVID-19 outbreak – Staff Association representatives can report on greater clarity on some of the key issues for members.

Improvements to significant clauses

CSIRO management accepted the position of the Staff Association on several important issues, including:

• The removal of the CSOF Level 3E barrier, which will provide greater opportunities for staff to progress through the Level 3 classification level
• The abolition of five yearly reviews for CSOF Level 7 and above staff – ensuring that only existing processes will be used to manage rewards and performance
• Providing an additional month for all staff to complete Stage 1 (Objective Setting) of the APA
• Ensuring that rewards cases consider the successful completion of Stage 3 (Review) of the most recent APA and
• Casual staff at AAHL being provided the same entitlements to site and secure area allowances – currently these allowances are only paid to indefinite and specified term staff.

Keep track of EA negotiations

The Staff Association bargaining analysis document charts the status of all enterprise agreement (EA) clauses as negotiations progress and is updated immediately following bargaining meetings.

Superannuation… not so super

Despite strong arguments from the Staff Association for CSIRO to provide at least 15.4% superannuation to all staff – regardless of the choice of fund – CSIRO management rejected our position.

Currently 8% of CSIRO staff only receive 9.5% superannuation – being in a superannuation fund other than PSSap. CSIRO is one of only three public sector organisations that maintains this inequitable approach.

The Staff Association will continue to seek a change in CSIRO management’s position on this key bargaining issue.

Several issues outstanding

Further progress was made on all clauses of the Enterprise Agreement (EA), with 68 clauses now agreed in principle, 15 still in deliberation, and 9 not agreed, including pay, superannuation, overtime and market related employment.

Of those clauses in deliberation, particular attention is focused on CSIRO management’s proposed changes to inter-city relocation and voluntary redundancy substitution; with the Staff Association’s position being no loss of entitlements from these clauses.

CSIRO management also formalised their position on postdoctoral fellows, in order to abolish the option of postdocs being appointed at CSOF Level 5 and to only permit consecutive postdoc terms if the second fellowship is undertaken in a different discipline area.

The Staff Association will be responding to these proposals at the next bargaining negotiation meeting.

The updating and improvement of parental leave entitlements (both paid and unpaid) and the incorporation of the workplace issues resolution procedure in the EA are other priority issues that are outstanding for Staff Association representatives.

Next steps

The next bargaining negotiation meeting will be held by video conference on Thursday 2 April. All members are encouraged to review the status of all EA clauses in our bargaining analysis document and to contact the Staff Association negotiating team by email.

Join the Staff Association

The COVID-19 emergency helps reinforce the importance of protecting CSIRO workplace conditions and securing a new Enterprise Agreement in a timely manner.

If you are not yet a member, join the Staff Association today. For more information on membership, email mailto:[email protected] or speak to an organiser or workplace delegate.