Fed: Commonwealth Bank to move towards AWAs

AAP General News (Australia)
08-15-2000
Fed: Commonwealth Bank to move towards AWAs

By Natalie Davison, Industrial Reporter

SYDNEY, Aug 15 AAP - Commonwealth Bank staff nationwide will be asked to sign individual
contracts or non-union pay deals after the bank rejected the union's latest compromise
offer.

Finance Sector Union (FSU) national assistant secretary Peter Riordan said the union
last week put forward a compromise offer rounding down a wage claim to within one per
cent of the bank's final offer.

But the bank rejected the offer and said it would consider negotiating with staff without
union intervention.

"One per cent is $10 million a year - so we're not talking about chicken feed," Commonwealth
deputy general manager human resources John Matthews said

"The EBA (enterprise bargaining agreement) is not just about remuneration, it's about
flexibility."

The bank's 28,000 staff held a 24-hour national strike in June after talks with the
bank first broke down.

The union has not ruled out taking further action now the bank has rejected its offer.

The revised claim was for an average pay increase of about 8.5 per cent over two years,
and included a performance pay increment.

But now that the bank has rejected that deal the FSU has gone back to its original
pay claim of 13 per cent pay increase over two years.

The bank is offering 6.5 per cent over two years plus some bonuses.

Mr Matthews said the bank believed its offer was fair but enterprise bargaining talks
were not progressing.

"If we can't get it through the EBA process we have to look for other alternatives
and that's what we are doing," he said.

"We're interested in the staff telling us whether we can come up with a way of taking
it to them individually or collectively outside the union.

"Essentially obviously our main options are AWAs or non-union EBAs."

The bank has ruled out having the matter mediated in the Australian Industrial Relations
Commission.

Mr Riordan said staff had previously rejected moves to sign on to AWAs and non-union
deals, but the bank had decided to push ahead with them regardless.

He said it was likely some staff on the lower end of the pay scale would sign on to
AWAs, but the vast majority would not.

Mr Matthews said the bank realised industrial action was likely.

But he said the offer remained on the table until the end of August.

AAP nd/ah/maur/de

KEYWORD: BANKS (CARRIED EARLIER)

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