Bargaining UpdateAt our conciliation conference with the Fair Work Commission, management agreed to resume bargaining in person, and prior to that meeting provide us with a package of updated clauses. They withheld the salary offer until the meeting proper, and the clauses they wanted in principle agreement on had minor movements, but still had major issues. We met in person on Today (October 22). Management improved their salary offer by 0.5% to 16%, contingent on us withdrawing our claim to 17% superannuation for casuals and agreeing in principal to their list of outstanding clauses, many of which we have previously indicated were unacceptable. When we declined to remove the claim for superannuation parity, they withdrew the increased salary offer. Discussions around other changes made in management’s package of claims did not progress towards any kind of mutually agreeable position. The bargaining team have asked management to bring a financial decision maker (Chief Operating Officer, Provost or Vice Chancellor) to the bargaining table so we can gain better understanding on why they are so strongly against paying casual workers the same super as everyone else at UQ.
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