Add Category
"The company appears to be deliberately trying to force a stalemate, so it can go to the Fair Work Commission and apply to terminate the existing agreements," he said. "It is disappointing that the operation of Australia's coal export supply chain has become collateral damage in Aurizon's cynical industrial relations strategy."
A spokesman for Aurizon said it has received notices from the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Employees (AFULE), the Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) and the Electrical Trades Unions (ETU) of protected industrial action by traincrew, freight operators and rollingstock maintainers in Aurizon’s Queensland Coal business. The action includes 24-hour stoppages at coal depots in Queensland at various times from February 4 until February 7.
Aurizon Coal would work with its above-rail haulage customers to minimise disruptions.
The spokesman said Aurizon had been bargaining in good faith on a new enterprise agreement for the coal business since July last year. The spokesman said Aurizon had put a proposal to rail unions which was rejected. He declined to provide details of the wages offer.
"Aurizon is now waiting for unions to provide further clarity around what they are seeking," he said.
Aurizon’s coal transport services have been targeted for disruption by union workers this week. Credit:Photo: Fairfax
The spokesman said Aurizon employees have approved three new enterprise agreements since September last year for white collar workers and train drivers. The agreements included wage increases of between 1.5 per cent to 2.25 per cent.
Federal government figures show the number of Australian employees on collective agreements in 2014 was 4,070,100 in 2014, representing 41.1 per cent of employees. That number fell to 3,695,200 (36.4 per cent) in 2016. The figure for last year was 4,033,600, representing 37.9 per cent of all employees. The Federal government declined to comment.
Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O'Neil said the termination of Aurizon’s agreement in 2015 "opened the floodgates for employers to use the threat of pay cuts and job insecurity to bully working people into sub-standard agreements".