REMUNERATION ISSUES - MEMBERSHIP CONSULTATION Consultation with staff is occurring on the draft report from the Joint Union/Management Remuneration Working Group (RWG) on remuneration options for CSIRO. Formal presentations will conclude on 4 July, after which the RWG will consider feedback and prepare a final report. Our Council is keen to obtain membership feedback on the matters currently before the RWG. Workplace meetings will be arranged over the next few weeks, and Council will determine a position which can be put on behalf of the union in the RWG in the preparation of the final report. Members will have further opportunities to comment and respond on the remuneration issues after this. The RWG final report will be presented to the union and the CSIRO Executive Committee. Further consultation with members will be arranged after the report is circulated. To assist in our consultation, Council has adopted the resolution (set out below) which indicates its view about our current remuneration system and options proposed within the draft report of the RWG. "Council encourages members and delegates to be involved in our consultation on the remuneration system prior to and after the preparation of the final report of the Join Union/Management Working Group (RWG) on remuneration. The work of RWG should be considered in the light of our experience with the existing remuneration system and the principles which have guided us in considering its merits over the past few years. The following aspects of the existing system and of the options proposed by the RWG should be given particular attention: 1. The scope for fairness and transparency of the existing system compared with proposed alternatives. 2. The minimal change required to implement Option 1. 3. The increase in management discretion in determining rewards in Option 3 and to a lesser extent in Option 2. 4. The additional cost and bureaucracy associated with Option 2 and 3. 5. The inability (or unwillingness) of CSIRO management to maintain consistent remuneration and assessment procedures (PPE). 6. The need for CSIRO to demonstrate its commitments over time to improving the existing system (as proposed in the RWG). Council's view is that the main problems wiht the current remuneration system arise through inadequacies of implementation rather than of principle. There is no reason to suppose substantial chages to the remuneration sytem - as proposed in Options 2 and 3 - would be any better in this respect. To expedite consulain, Council ranks the current RWG ptions in the following order of preference. 1 The enhanced current system (Option 1). 2. The premium pay step on top of the enhanced current system (Option 3). 3. The pay band system (Option 3). Council seeks feedback from members on the RWG options prior to the 10th July 1996, following which Council will meet to determine a position to be put on behalf of the union in the preparation of the final report by the RWG. Following release of the final report of the RWG, Council will meet urgently to determine our initial response and the process for further membership consultation". Council encourages membership response by 10 July. In consultation with your delegate and Sub-Division Executive, membership meetings will be held to discuss these matters. SUBSCRIPTION ISSUES Last April, Council resolved in principle to increase subscriptions for all members except retired members from 0.45% of salary to 0.5% of salary. This decision and the reasons for increasing the subscriptions were outlined to members in the April Newsletter. Each Sub-Division was requested to canvass among members and to report its view to Council prior to a final decision. While it is accepted that any increase in fees is difficult, most Sub-Divisions have supported an increase in subscription levels. In particular, it is recognised increasing work pressures and demands on delegates, representatives and honorary officials leave less time for involvement in union activities than in the past. In turn, this places greater demand on our paid staff. Following consideration of the responses from Sub-Divisions, Council resolved as follows: "That Council recognises the prevailing industrial and organisational circumstances which have increased demands on the union. In particular, increasing work demands are leaving delegates and other honorary officials with substantially less time for union activities. Taking the response of all Sub-Divisions into account, Council therefore resolves to increase subscriptions to 0.5% of salary from 1-11-1996". You will note that the date of effect is 1 November 1996 which is the date from which the 2% pay increase will occur (first full pay period thereafter). JOB SECURITY ISSUES (a) Redundancy Provisions - negotiations to cease In recent Newsletters, members have been provided with reports on the negotiations over job security and redundancy entitlements. These matters are contained in the current enterprise agreement arising from our claims on behalf of members. Our claim sought to increase the payment redundant officers receive on taking the fast-track exit from CSIRO. Unfortunately, CSIRO negotiators have repeatedly stated that the CSIRO Executive Committee will not support an increase in these benefits unless there were significant changes (i.e., tradeoffs) of other components of the redundancy conditions. In particular, the CSIRO management propose to abolish retention and substitute this with other provisions. On this basis, Council assesses that there is little prospect of negotiating positive changes and has directed the Division Secretary to discontinue discussions with CSIRO with respect to this claim. Council acknowledges this may be a disappointment to many members, but considers it is important that negotiations don't continue fruitlessly and that members expectations are not raised unrealistically. (b) Improvements to Tenure Discussions on improvement to tenure arrangements with CSIRO Management have been more positive and Council has authorised the Division Secretary to continue discussions about changes to the Tenure Award. In particular, the Division Secretary will explore the possibility of introducing a loading for term appointees subject to not reducing opportunities for term appointees to be made indefinite. The purpose of the loading would be to compensate term officers for the lack of long service leave and termination entitlements and to reduce any financial disincentive to the engagement of indefinite officers. FINAL REPORT DUE FROM THE TRAVEL TRIAL COMMITTEE The Final report of the Travel Trial Committee is due to be released shortly. One of the key recommendations is for a daily component of $15 to cover incidental expenses. Members in the trialing Divisions o far are happy with the final report's direction. Council has resolved to consider the report as soon as it is released, make a recommendation to members, and seek feedback before adopting a final position. If you are interested in this issue keep a weather eye open for the report which should be available on the Web and from our office within the next week. OHS AGREEMENT REVIEW It is now 5 years since the unions and CSIRO signed the first Agreement on Occupational Health and Safety (OHS). The Agreement states that it be reviewed every three years, but it has taken us and CSIRO until now to initiate the first review. By and large the Agreement appears to have operated well, and CSIRO management have not indicated any desire for major change, although there is a need to update the reference to Institute Directors(!) Please feedback any comments about the Agreement through your delegate, OHS Committee representatives or HSR. All site libraries should have copies of the Agreement, but the union office can supply you with a copy if you cannot get hold of one. UNION STAFFING (a) Secondment of Division Assistant Secretary Council has approved the secondment of the Division Assistant Secretary, Sandy Ross, to work with the Commonwealth Funds Management (CFM) from early July for three months. CFM is the government statutory authority which has responsibility for managing the investment of funds of the CSS and PSS. Although it will not be easy for us to do without Sandy for a little while, this is an excellent opportunity to build up our knowledge of superannuation issues. (b) Temporary Appointment Council authorised the appointment of Mr John Cooney as a temporary industrial officer for the period of the Division Assistant Secretary's secondment. John works as an industrial officer in the Victorian Branch of the PSU Group and has had two previous stints working within our section of the union. Welcome back John! (c) Appointment to ACT I am pleased to announce that Mr Geoff Dreschler has been appointed to the vacant industrial officer/organiser based in ACT. At the moment, Geoff is working in the Victorian Branch of the PSU Group and previously worked with the Telecom Section. Initially, the appointment will be shared with the Tax Division and Geoff will work two days per week on CSIRO matters. Geoff will take up the appointment at the beginning of August. Congratulation Geoff ! (d) WA Service Arrangement The service arrangements negotiated with the WA Branch will commence on 1 July 1996. The WA Branch Secretary, Ian Thompson has designated Ms Janine Symons to carry out this work and on behalf of our members. Janine is the Assistant State Secretary and has worked with the Sub-Division Committee and assisted members in the recent past. SECTOR ALLIANCES Following the approval of the Board to proceed with the abolition of the Institutes and the establishment of the Sector Alliances, considerable effort is being committed to their development. Recently, a strong criticism questioning the efficacy of the Alliances and their consumption of resources has been brought to the attention of the union. This is the first criticism we have received. Council is interested to know whether it is an isolated instance or widespread and transitional (i.e., due to setting up) or long term? If you have a view on the Alliances, please let your Councillor or the Division Secretary know. IN THIS ISSUE Remuneration Issues - Membership Feedback .............................................page 1 Subscription Increase.................................................................... ....................page Job Security Issues...................................................................... .......................page Final Report due from the Travel Trial Committee.......................................page OHS Agreement Review...................................................................... ...............page Union Staff....................................................................... ....................................page Sector Alliances................................................................... ...............................page FROM THE EDITOR Our Council met on the weekend of 15 and 16 June. Within our section of the union, Council is the supreme policy and decision making body. The agenda was extensive and several important decisions were made by Council. A number of these are reported in this Newsletter. The most critical relate to the remuneration options and membership consultation and the decision to increase subscriptions. With respect to the fee increase, I appreciate that most people do not like paying more. However, I am sure that members will be conscious of the increasing pressure of work and the impact this has on the time and capacity of our delegates and honorary officials to undertake work on behalf of members and union generally. With respect to consultation on remuneration issues, I encourage you to participate in the workplace meetings. Our approach is to conduct the meeting close to you in order to minimise inconvenience and optimise involvement. I encourage you to use this process to let us know your views. The Government Budget announcement is only a few weeks away. Many members will have heard the rumour that CSIRO will be levied an additional 3% on appropriation funding as part of the Government's strategy to eliminate the so called $8 Billion "black hole". Along with several of our honorary officials, I have met with representative of the Government, Democrats and the Labor Party to brief them on our concerns regarding CSIRO and public sector R&D. I anticipate further contact will be made with the political parties at the time the budget is brought down. Peter O'Donoghue Division Secretary NO. 5 JUNE 1996