Newsletter No. 27
APRIL / MAY 2005
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Road builders win 36-hour week, three year agreement Workers on the 45km, $2.5 billion, Mitcham Frankston road building project in Victoria have won a three-year agreement that gives a 36-hour week, with 26 rostered days off a year (13 fixed, 13 flexible). The agreement flies in the face of proposed Howard government Industrial Relations laws, which the AWU describes as ‘unnecessary, adversarial and counter-productive’, in that it is a three year collective agreement, has a compulsory arbitration role and provides breakthroughs in superannuation, parental leave, allowances and penalty rates. The workers are members of the CFMEU and AWU, who have also agreed on a process to avoid demarcation disputes over union coverage (‘Workers win in AWU’s Mitcham Frankston agreement’ www.awu.net.au/ 18.3.05). |