To view what is happening in your Communications Officer negotiations click here.

St John listed the ‘final revised offer’ for the 2023-2026 Communications Officers EBA negotiations which is attached here.

The AEAWA were also provided the 14 clauses (listed below); click here to review.

The AEAWA would like all Officers contained in the Communications Officers Certified Agreement to view this offer and let us know what you think by emailing [email protected]., once it is posted on Connect. When we have received your feedback, the AEAWA Executive will formally write to St John to advise them on our answer.

As soon a response is received from St John, we will update our members. Thanks again for all of your support and patience through these negotiations, they are often long and arduous, however, we have been able to successfully negotiate this new offer.

The AEAWA Executive

St John listed there ‘revised final offer’ for the 2023-2026 Communications Officers EBA negotiations which is attached here.

The AEAWA were also provided the 13 clauses (listed below) to review. The AEAWA after numerous contacts by our Communications Officer members have written to the St John executive management team advising them of a ‘no vote’ if this current offer is presented to the membership (seen here).

Appendix A – Clause 2 Aims and Objectives of the Agreement
Appendix B – Clause 3 – Definitions
Appendix C – Clause 9 – Progression
Appendix D – Clause 15 – Allowances
Appendix E – Clause 18 – Secondments
Appendix F – Clause 19 – Hours of Work and Shifts
Appendix G – Clause 22 – Superannuation
Appendix H – Clause 23.1 Annual Leave
Appendix I – Clause 23.2 – Personal Leave
Appendix J – Clause 23.4 – Public Holidays
Appendix K – Clause 23.10 – Special Leave
Appendix L – Clause 23.13 and 23.14 – Family Domestic Violence – Paid Leave
Appendix M – New Clause – Cultural and Ceremonial Leave

A new clause has been added to this revised offer from St John, seen below.

Appendix N – New Clause – Long Service Leave

As soon a response is received, we will update our members. Thanks again for all of your support and patience through these negotiations, they are often long and arduous, however, the AEAWA believe you are worth more than this presented offer.

The AEAWA Executive

St John listed there ‘final offer’ for the 2023-2026 Communications Officers EBA negotiations which is attached here.

The AEAWA were also provided the 13 clauses (listed below) to review. The AEAWA after numerous contacts by our Communications Officer members have written to the St John executive management team advising them of a ‘no vote’ if this current offer is presented to the membership (seen here).

Appendix A – Clause 2 Aims and Objectives
Appendix B – Clause 3 – Shift Worker Definitions
Appendix C – Clause 9 – Progression
Appendix D – Clause 15 – Allowances
Appendix E – Clause 18 – Secondments
Appendix F – Clause 19 – Hours of Work and Shifts
Appendix G – Clause 22 – Superannuation
Appendix H – Clause 23.1 Annual Leave
Appendix I – Clause 23.2 – Personal Leave
Appendix J – Clause 23.4 – Public Holidays
Appendix K – Clause 23.10 – Special Leave
Appendix L – Clause 23.13 and 23.14 – Family Domestic Violence – Paid Leave
Appendix M – New Clause – Cultural and Ceremonial Leave

As soon a response is received, we will update our members. Thanks again for all of your support and patience through these negotiations, they are often long and arduous, however, the AEAWA believe you are worth more than this presented offer.

The AEAWA Executive

Meeting Chaired By
Wil White.

Meeting Conducted
10:00 – 11:30.

Committee Attendees
Lee Waller, Nick Willis, Kam Phagura and Liz Jaggard.

Committee Apologies
Mike Hardwick and John Thomas

SJA Attendees
Wil White, Rene Anderson, Austin Whiteside and Stephanie Freemantle.

Agenda Items
This was a small meeting that presented the few EBA agenda items that hadn’t been previously addressed. After today’s meeting St John will cost the agenda items and present those details at the next meeting.

Pay Scale Progression
For the progression policy, St John have done some preliminary work on the progression pathway for the pay rises. The AEAWA explained that all pay scales within the room for the period of the negotiations are to pay employees as a progression from years 1 to 4 and then to cap the pay rate at a level 5, which an employee hits at the year-7 mark in their career.

This classification denotes seniority within the room, The year-7 mark is also for those employees (who hit LSL at year 10), have an incentive to stay. This assists St John if the employees with experience stay.

St John will have a look at the St John claim into the travel component.

Permanency at the Wangara Hub
This was a St John claim, to which the AEAWA is not opposed, in fact we had raised this in the past during the SOC JCC. The question was asked, in the past St John have only wanted the Radio Dispatchers at the same location as the RTM, will this be changed?

You can not move multiple dispatchers from one location because your RTM lives closer to another. St John will discuss this point and return back with further information. As this will be classed as a ‘major change’ within the Agreement, St John will have to consult the workforce at a later stage.

Night Shift Payment
The AEAWA presented the clause for all classifications, regarding the Night Shift Payment. Although this was imported from the Ambulance Officers/Paramedics Agreement a discussion occurred around the wording. Basically, it states you will get a Night Shift Payment if you work on a roster pursuant of a 2,2.4 roster.

This does not mean that only 2,2,4 officers get the payment. Its listed as that due to the fact that it is the only full night shift roster we have is the 2,2,4 roster. If you work every Thursday Night shift you will get the allowance, as you will be doing this on the night shift on a 2,2.4 roster.

Accessing Half Shift Leave
Another bargaining group had a claim for employees to have the ability to take half a day for appointments etc. This was rejected by St John as there is an avenue currently where employees can access this leave. St John state it would place them at significant risk for maintaining employee numbers within the room if all staff had this ability.

Fair and Equitable Hours
Some discussion occurred around this. St John are supportive of this situation and understand this is a significant issue for employees. What St John don’t want to do is place this into a Certified Agreement where if they were not able to spread the hours fairly (due to book offs etc), they would be breaching the Agreement.

The initial view of St John was to establish a working group to look at this issue. The AEAWA again stated that this issue has been brought up multiple times at the SOC JCC, with no outcome. This left the AEAWA with no other option than to place this int the Agreement.

Now that we are back in negotiations St John want to do a working group. The AEAWA are not supportive of this as it’s been talked about at nauseam. After another discussion today both parties will work together to formulate a policy so that if an employee is regularly disadvantaged financially or through less hours in a classification than someone else there is a recourse for them.

Operational Support Officers
St John opened by stating that the next OSO induction will happen July 27^th. St John presented the AEAWA with the OSO JDF to review. The AEAWA are happy with most of their job description, but identified two small areas of concern which St John took onboard. These were OSOs doing welfare checks and updating location warnings, which currently they do not do. The AEAWA asked St John if in the future, will these roles be given to OSOSs, the answer was no.

The AEAWA also presented the pay scales for the OSOs including their pay increments and night shift penalty.

Shift Development Officer
The AEAWA presented the SDO component of the claim, in order to have this classification in the Agreement. The AEAWA had done numerous calculations for this role. Todays meeting St John had stated this will be a seconded role only, it will not be a permanent position. In light of this information, the pay scales for the SDO position will be redrafted to incorporate this.

Meeting Closed
12:30

Next Negotiations Meeting
Friday June 14th, 2023 (09:30-12:30).

The Consolidated Log of Claims
After each EBA negotiation meeting, a summary of discussions and status of claims is listed here. To view the consolidated log please click here.

Meeting Chaired By
Wil White.

Meeting Conducted
09:30 – 12:30.

Committee Attendees
John Thomas, Lee Waller, Nick Willis, Kam Phagura and Liz Jaggard.

Committee Apologies
Mike Hardwick

SJA Attendees
Wil White, Natalie Adams, Sarah Dacko and Stephanie Freemantle.

Travel Allowance – New Locations
St John have initially rejected the AEAWA’s claim for travel. The Associations claim was for officers to be paid the travel allowance from the officer’s home address to their working location. St John have however, agreed to review and discuss the other component of the AEAWAs claim for a travel allowance claim when moved from one location to another. This travel would be paid between locations and not from the officer’s home address.

Multiple Duties Allowance
After numerous discussions around the table, and in the interest on focusing on a other priority matters, the AEAWA dropped the Multiple Duties Allowance.

Night Shift Payment
St John have previously stated that they are not opposed to a night shift allowance but asked the AEAWA for a quantum so a costing could be performed. The allowance is for all OSO, Communications Officers and the ANC positions.

Secondments
The AEAWA wanted fairness for all officers regarding this claim. In the past St John have bypassed numerous selection criteria in order to place any officer they wish into a position. This has had a detrimental affect on morale within the workforce. The AEAWA were happy that their claim to advertise all secondments and the start and finish dates of those secondments would be advertised on connect. We were not so happy with the last component of the clause that suggest St John can bypass all of the above in extenuating circumstances.

The AEAWA are understanding that certain positions may be required to be filled immediately, however this trend of St John placing officers into unadvertised positions appears to happen frequently. The AEAWA have accepted the secondment clause and want officers to contact the AEAWA if they become aware of any position being bypassed by a tap on the shoulder. ALL positions should be advertised so that every officer who meets the selection criteria can apply.

Annual Leave
Currently St John are playing with the wording regarding the Annual Leave clause, specifically to the section relating to obtaining medical certificates whilst on leave if the employee accesses their sick leave. The AEAWA reject this change to the current clause, as it is not a stipulation within the national employment standards.

Personal Leave
Two extra personal leave days were rejected by St John as the understanding that those were added to the Paramedics Agreement as ‘exposure days’ for COVID. Much discussion took place over this statement.

The AEAWA made it clear this was not the case. In the Ambulance Officers/Paramedic Agreement negotiations we tabled a claim for four mental health days. The AEAWA believe that if you work in an administration role you are awarded this benefit. Its unfortunate that if you deal directly with traumatic scenes on a daily basis you cannot access this benefit. In essence front line St John staff are not entitled to mental health days.

During the paramedic Agreement negotiations, it was decided by St John that they would give an extra 2-days into employee’s sick leave balance instead of the allotted mental health days. Your committee believes all those working within the SOC and Wangara Hub, dealing with trauma, chronic understaffing and a lack of support should be entitled to this increase. St John will go away and review.

Special Leave
St John agreed to increase the number of special leave allocation spots to 4 per shift (3 comms officers [inclusive of dispatchers and call-takers] and 1 OSO). The AEAWA are receptive of this. Another one of the AEAWA claims was to increase the special leave hours able to be taken by employees to a positive of 96 hours and a negative of 48 hours. This has also been agreed to by St John.

Fair and Equitable Clause
St John appear supportive of this but require further wording in order to agree to this clause. The AEAWA are currently writing amendments for the next negotiation meeting.

Extra EDO
St John are supportive of this claim but would like to look at the costings and how this would be implemented into the Wangara Hub.

On Call/Recall
At the meeting St John stated that as this claim would require much work in order to implement this practice, they decided to withdraw the claim.

OSO Classification
Both the AEAWA and St John submitted claims for the Operational Support Officers to be placed into the Communications Officers Agreement. As the OSOs are in the Administration Agreement much of their specific pay details are kept with payroll. The AEAWA requested the following from St John in order to perform a calculation on future pay rises.
– Annual salary ($72,888)
– Weekly base rate (St John to send detail)
– Hourly rate (St John to send detail)

St John also stated there are currently 7 in the room and they are in the process to recruit another 6. Most of the OSOs have either gone into the communications officer role or into another position at St John.

CO5 at 7-Years
St John and the AEAWA discussed this at length, and it was decided by the AEAWA to include another two pay levels (at Year 5 and 6). Further details will be provided soon.

Meeting Closed
12:30

Next Negotiations Meeting
Friday June 2nd, 2023 (09:30-12:30).

The Consolidated Log of Claims
After each EBA negotiation meeting, a summary of discussions and status of claims is listed here. To view the consolidated log please click here.

Meeting Chaired By
Wil White.

Meeting Conducted
09:30 – 12:30.

Committee Attendees
Mike Hardwick, Lee Waller, Nick Willis, Kam Phagura and Liz Jaggard.

Committee Apologies
John Thomas

SJA Attendees
Wil White, Natalie Adams, Sarah Dacko and Stephanie Freemantle.

New Locations
St John rejected the AEAWA’s claim for being paid travel from your home address to your  workplace. Further discussions around those who are required to move locations post shift  commencement and the complexities of staff deployments occurred for some time. St John stated they are not opposed to a ‘travel clause’ if an officer is moved. The AEAWA had also included a travel if moved on shift component to the clause. So further discussions around this component will occur soon.

Multiple Duties Allowance
St John reviewed the allowance and asked if the AEAWA wanted staff to claim both hourly rates. There was some initial confusion about what rate the officer would claim. St John realise that currently officers are performing multiple roles within the SOC and Wangara Hub. The AEAWA suggested a newly written clause that will include all current circumstances within in it and will provide St John with those amendments soon.

Secondments
St John presented the secondment clause. The AEAWA agree to most of the clause, but not the second part of Clause (f) which stipulates at the end “Nothing in this clause prohibits St John from filling a short-term secondment without advertisement in extenuating circumstances”. There is no definition of an extenuating circumstance, and this (which has been proved with
St John time and again), is the new ‘Operational Circumstances”. Basically, this gives St John  open slather, and provides them the ability for the chosen few to bypass the selection criteria,

The example was given under this wording that St John could create a position; place an officer they want into the role. They would then advertise that position with a high likelihood of the successful applicant being the individual they originally chose for the role. Further discussions occurred around when this was done in the past with numerous examples provided.

The AEAWA reiterated that nothing happens quickly in St John, and that a proper selection process could still occur pre implementation of a role that sits outside of the current Agreement.

The AEAWA strongly opposed the wording and presented St John multiple occasions where  they have bypassed the current process. The AEAWA reject this wording which St John had placed into the AEAWA claim.

Special Leave
St John agreed in principle to the AEAWA claim of increasing the special leave allocation from two to three officers.

Fair and Equitable Hours Clause
St John stated that they wanted to understand the various complexities of this claim and suggested a working group be implemented to work through this. The AEAWA initially rejected this working group suggestion as it has failed numerous times  in the past. The AEAWA identified that this issue had been raised in four previous joint consultative committee meetings with no movement, so it was brought to the negotiations. Now St John would like a working group to be involved.

As St John would like these negotiations to be wrapped up over the next two to three months the AEAWA stated that a working group would only have a couple of meeting over that time  frame. The AEAWA would only agree to a working group if the ‘agreed’ outcome was  included into this negotiated Agreement.

An example was given with the country working group for the Paramedics/Ambulance Officers Certified Agreement were very little of the AEAWA’s input was taken onboard, and that process took ten-months.

Long Service Leave (pro-rata)
St John agreed in principle for Communications Officers to have the ability to access on a pro-rata basis to their LSL post 7-yaers.

Superannuation
St John presented Clause 22 (superannuation) which identifies a default super fund. That being REST. The AEAWA agreed in principle to this claim which has been a stipulation of the Fair Work Commission.

Family and Domestic Violence Leave – Paid Leave
St John presented this clause with necessary changes stipulated by the Fair Work Commission. The AEAWA agreed in principle to these changes.

Allocated Screen Breaks
St John rejected the AEAWA’s claim for providing further ‘time away from screen breaks’, as they identified that this would mean staff get a total of 7-breaks. They did agree in principle to changing the current 2x 10-minute shift breaks to 15-minutes. The AEAWA will respond shortly.

Night Shift Payment
St John have stated they are not opposed to this, however, would like the AEAWA to submit an appendix, with an example of the pay rates. The AEAWA submitted Appendix 8 to St John for review.

Progression
The AEAWA have agreed in principle to the Progression component of the claim and will write a response to St John shortly. We advise all members to review that policy and provide the AEAWA with any concerns by emailing [email protected]. The individual roles requiring feedback are.
– SOC Career Pathway Flowchart
– Ambulance Network Coordinator
– Communications Officer Trainer
– Communications Officer Mentor
– Operations Support Officer Trainer
– Operations Support Officer Mentor
– Radio Dispatch Mentor
– Radio Dispatch Trainer
– Radio Dispatcher
– Response Time Manager
– Shift Development Officer

Rewarding Seniority
St John have entered discussions on the AEAWA’s claim for a new CO5 pay point (post 7-years of employment). The AEAWA provided an example of how this pay scale would sit in the new Agreement. St John will provide feedback shortly.

EDO Claim
Discussion took place around having an extra EDO in the Wangara Hub to assist the dispatchers. St John stated they are not opposed to this and suggested the AEAWA submit a claim for this item to be included in upcoming discussions.

Meeting Closed
12:30

Next Negotiations Meeting
Friday May 19th, 2023 (09:30-12:30).

The Consolidated Log of Claims
After each EBA negotiation meeting, a summary of discussions and status of claims is listed here. To view the consolidated log please click here.

Meeting Chaired By
Wil White.

Meeting Conducted
09:30 – 12:30.

Committee Attendees
John Thomas, Mike Hardwick, Nick Willis, Kam Phagura and Liz Jaggard.

Committee Apologies
Lee Waller and Kami Evans

SJA Attendees
Wil White, Austin Whiteside, Natalie Adams and Stephanie Freemantle.

Shift Worker Definition
There will be a change to the definition within all St John Agreements regarding the definition of an employee, or in our cases ‘shift worker’. This definition is changed to the following wording “Shift Worker – means an employer who is regularly rostered to work over 7 days a week and is regularly rostered to work on Sundays and Public Holidays. For the purposes of the National Employment Standards, Shift Workers are entitled to additional Annual Leave in accordance with clause 23.1 (b) of this agreement’.

This is a National Employee Standard change in wording and will be incorporated into most industry Certified Agreements. This changes nothing for our employment.

Communications Officer Progression
In previous meetings St John have presented a working diagram of how an employee progresses within their employment. The diagram although informative needs further discussions, and this will occur over future EBA negotiations.

Radio Dispatcher Allowance
The Radio Dispatcher Allowance was a payment to all Radio Dispatchers to perform their duties on the radio. At the last meeting SOC employees around the table performed some calculations and realised that this allowance effectively gives our members a $12,000 pay cut over the life of the Agreement.

After reviewing this and listening to the feedback from the AEAWA, St John have decided to withdraw this claim.

Night Shift Allowance  
The AEAWA will present the Appendix for the Night Shift Allowance at the next meeting This allowance is to compensate those employees in the SOC and Wangara Hub who perform a full night shift. The Appendix will be placed on the website when presented.

AEAWA Secondment Claim  
The AEAWA presented the disparity between the paid rate and the allowance for performing other roles within the SOC/Wangara Hub along with the fact that all roles need to be advertised (with their effective start dates and end dates). There has been too many ‘taps on the shoulder’ type roles lately and the AEAWA wanted to introduce more fairness into who gets these positions.

St John is providing the AEAWA with feedback over this claim shortly.

Public Holidays Claim  
As there have been a variation in the allotted public holidays (in essence more of them), St John have stated they will amend the Public Holiday component of the next Certified Agreement to ‘Each employee is entitled to the Public Holidays proclaimed in Western Australia, including newly proclaimed Public Holidays’.

Special Leave Claim  
The AEAWA asked St John to increase the Special Leave allocated numbers each shift, in which St John agreed. The AEAWA believe that a percentile increase is a better option, as the number of employees able to take special leave will increase with the increased staffing levels ‘promised’ for the SOC/Wangara Hub. St John have rejected the percentile increase but have agreed to allocating three special leave spots per shift.

The AEAWA also had a claim to increase the special leave balance to 96 hours, to align with the Ambulance Officer/Paramedics Agreement. St John have rejected this, although they have admitted that very few staff have a positive balance of special leave. St John have stated that they will discuss this further in future meeting.

Fair and Equitable Hours  
St John will review this when the AEAWA presents the Appendix (which the AEAWA have provided), so feedback will occur shortly.

Ambulance Network Coordinator Allowance  
A claim to provide these members with an Allowance has been accepted by St John, however further discussions will need to take place.

Multi Skill Allowance  
A claim to provide members who are performing multiple roles due to inadequate staffing levels has been initially rejected by St John. They would like the AEAWA to provide more clarity over this claim and present an Appendix (which the AEAWA have provided), so feedback will occur shortly.

Screen Breaks  
A claim to provide members with extra time away from screens will be discussed over the next coming meeting.

Shift Development Officer Classification   
A claim to provide progression, the allowance and a place within the Certified Agreement for these members has produced some discussion with St John who seem happy with this classification inclusion. More discussions will occur soon.

The St John Proposed Pay Rise   
St Johns claim was to give all those within the Agreement a 3%/3%/3% pay rise which was strongly opposed and rejected by the AEAWA. Discussions occurred around the Job Keeper payment scheme which provided St John with a massive amount of money, and the fact that Communications Officers have been promised that more staff are coming. Sadly, those working have not been able to see this increase in staff as yet.

The AEAWA reiterated that this is well below what our members deserve. St John may review this in coming meetings.

Meeting Closed
12:30

Next Negotiations Meeting
The next meeting was to be on Wednesday 5^th March 2023 (09:30-12:30), however due to the claim to place our Operational Support Officer colleagues into the Communications Agreement (so they can enjoy the allowances provided, and career pathways) this has meant there will be a delay in the next meeting. This is due to the OSO’s sitting in another Agreement, and they will then need to be negotiated out of their current Agreement, and into this one.

Meeting Chaired By
Wil White.

Meeting Conducted
09:30 – 12:30.

Committee Attendees
Mike Hardwick, Lee Waller, Nick Willis, Kam Phagura, Kami Evans and Liz Jaggard.

SJA Attendees
Wil White, Austin Whiteside, Natalie Adams, Stephanie Freemantle and Sarah Dacko.

Committee Apologies
John Thomas

Meeting Agenda

Introduction
An acknowledgment by St John for International Women’s Day and a welcome to Meeting 2 of the Communications Officers EBA negotiations.

Shift Employee Definition
St John commenced with the definition of a Shift Worker. They want to change the definition with the Certified Agreement from ‘Shift Employee – means an employee who works a rotating roster and who is regularly required to work Sundays and public holidays to ‘Shift Worker – means an employee who is regularly rostered to work over 7 days a week and is regularly rostered to work on Sundays and public holidays.

The AEAWA understand that wording changes are required from time to time but asked St John for the intent of this wording. St John want to change it as it aligns better with legislation. The AEAWA would like some time to review this.

The AEAWA will formalise a response to St John before the next EBA meeting.

St John Financial Introduction
The organisation opened the talk that there is an increase in pressure on the bottom line. Cost pressures from wages and supply chain issues and the growth in the number of employees recently employed by St John have put some pressure on finances. Although there has been a recent increase in capital, St John stated they have spent funds on property and day to day business costs.

A recent change of tactic is not mentioning increases as a CPI increase, the new term preferred is the Wage Price Index (WPI), which is believed to be a better reflection than CPI regarding employee pay rises. Regarding the ‘secrecy’ of the new Health Services contract, St John stated it is the Government that is making the Service Agreement a closed document not SJA.

SOC Career Pathway
St John provided a SOC career pathway. All roles being defined in a flow chart (inclusive of Operational Support Officers and the Shift Development Officer). Officers will be able to click on the job title and information on time in role, and what officers need to do before they are able to apply for the next position will be provided.

The issue that was discussed and St John then provided an example. With this new progression pathway if a Country Radio Dispatcher passes the Country component and moves to become a Metropolitan Radio Dispatcher and is deemed not suitable in the metro position, they WILL NOT, return back to their previous country position. They will be employed as a Call-Taker.

St Johns rationale is if that a person returns back to the country position, they essentially hold up a Call-Taker wanting to progress into the Country Radio Dispatch position.

The AEAWA raised some serious concerns with this policy and asked for further information regarding the time frames of progression. In its current form the AEAWA reject the St Johns version of Progression. Although the AEAWA has a claim for progression in the SOC/Wangara Hub. We were happy to stick with our version.

Radio Dispatcher Allowance
Once reviewing the provided document containing Dispatcher costs provided to the AEAWA at this meeting, it was explained that radio Dispatchers (the Radio Allowance component) costs St John $170.550 per year. This was their reasoning to remove that cost and apply an allowance to all Radio Dispatchers. This costing was also inclusive of increasing the number of Radio Dispatchers to 50 (we don’t know as yet if this total included the Country radio Dispatchers).

The good news is that this allowance will be paid whilst on Annual Leave (with future discussions to take place regarding what other leave periods this will be paid for). Bad news is, the Radio Dispatchers in the room performed a quick calculation on the numbers and worked out very quickly that they would be approximately $3,500 worse off a year with this deal.

The increasing of Radio Dispatchers to 50 was also reviewed and currently there are 39 Radio Dispatchers on this current roster and 9 Country Radio Dispatchers. So, the increase to 50 would be 11 new Radio Dispatchers if the Country Dispatchers are not included in the total number.

The proposed Allowance is $3,411 per year (worked out on the previously mentioned costing to St John at $170.550 divided by these 50 officers). Any radio Dispatchers reviewing this can simply calculate what you have been paid for in Radio Dispatch hours to see if this Allowance improves or detriments your fortnightly income. All at the table said its worse.

St John stated they are happy to send the pay tables through, which will be aligned to the various SOC and Wangara Hub pay scales.

In its current form the AEAWA rejects this initially proposed claim.

Travel Matrix
St John has done an assessment on the ATOs travel payments table and believes that staff are already better off currently than what they should be providing under the ATO framework. St Johns stated that the payment went from 68c per kilometer to 78c per kilometer last Agreement.

St John rejected the AEAWA’s Travel Matrix Clause.

Travel Allowance
St John do not support the AEAWA’s claim of traveling between the employee’s home address and their work location. The organisation wants to keep the current way they pay officers for travel.

St John rejects the AEAWA’s Travel Allowance Clause.

Night Shift Payment
After discussion relating to the benefits of paying a night shift allowance for all SOC and Wangara Hub officers, St John are happy to discuss this option further and have asked the AEAWA to formalise a table, explanation etc for the next EBA meeting.

St John are willing to explore this clause but would like to see all of the detail.

Secondments to be Advertised
Some lengthy discussions occurred with this one, In the past officers have had a tap on the shoulder to move into an ‘un advertised’ position. The AEAWA believes this is an unfair process that lacks any honesty and transparency.

St John initially opposed this clause as they stated that these positions often have to be implemented quickly and that there is no time in some cases to advertise the role and interview the applicants.

The AEAWA stated that nothing happens quickly in this organisation and that management must know weeks before hand that these positions are being created. This is NOT a barrier to fail to advertise a position. The AEAWA believes this is a way around the selection process,

St John are willing to explore this clause and will respond shortly.

Special Leave
Currently 2 per officers per shift are allowed to take special leave at one time. St John stated that they are happy to increase that limit to 3 and will respond back to the AEAWA shortly. A discussion occurred if St John would consider a percentage rather than a number of officers off.

St John are willing to explore this clause and will respond shortly.

Regarding the Special Leave balance of hours (accrued up to 96 hours dependent on rostered hours). St John will also explore this.

Fair and Equitable Hours
The AEAWA were asked to provide some content around how this would occur if implemented. Put forward a proposal, show how those hours are be captured etc.

Actions to be Taken for Next Meeting
The AEAWA will provide the following to discuss at the next meeting.

1. Travel Allowance Clause
2. Night Shift Penalty Clause
3. Fair and Equitable Hours Clause to discuss.

 

St John will provide the following to discuss at the next meeting.

1. Wording update for the SJA proposed change of definition of Shift Worker
2. SOC Progression Policy content.
3. Dispatcher Allowance costings (St John admit this could be an item they remove from their Log of Claims).
4. Provide feedback to the AEAWA item Advertised Secondment Clause
5. St John to consider the increase from 2 special leave spots per shift to 3 and the accrual hours to increase to 96 (at x2 the officers’ normal hours of work)

Meeting Closed
12:30

Next Negotiations Meeting
Wednesday 22^nd March 2023 (09:30-12:30)

Meeting Chaired By
Wil White.

Meeting Conducted
09:30 – 12:30.

Committee Attendees
Mike Hardwick, Lee Waller, Nick Willis, Kami Evans and Liz Jaggard.

SJA Attendees
Wil White, Austin Whiteside, Natalie Adams and Stephanie Freemantle.

Committee Apologies
John Thomas and Kam Phagura.

Meeting Agenda

Introduction
The bargaining processes were explained to the committee and the expectations of this current bargaining period. Bargaining in good faith was explained along with the specifics of negotiations.

This was not a discussion meeting regarding the items it was simply a presentation of the various parties Log of Claims and rationale for inclusion by all parties.

Meeting Closed
12:30

AEAWA Response
The AEAWA will formally write to St John with a response to their presented Communications Officers Log of Claims shortly.

Next Communications Negotiation Meeting
Wednesday 8^th March 2023.

To view the SJA Communications Officers Log of Claims click here.

To view the AEAWA Communications Officers Log of Claims click here.