In other words, Toll is “committed” to nothing.
#AUG 31ST TRUCKER STRIKE FULL#
The TWU complains of the company’s “rejection of limits on outside hire and real commitments to full utilisation,” but in reality this simply means the retention of conditions signed off on by the TWU in previous EAs.Ĭlause 17 of the 2017 agreement states, in part: “Toll commits (a) to the full-time engagement of its Transport Workers wherever possible (b) subject to reasonable practical requirements, such as adequately servicing industry peaks, to promote job security through the full utilisation of full-time permanent Transport Workers/Owner-Drivers before the engagement of part-time Transport Workers/Owner-Drivers, or casual Transport Workers/Owner-Drivers or Outside Hire.”
#AUG 31ST TRUCKER STRIKE DRIVERS#
While the company has walked back a plan to stop paying overtime rates to part-time drivers working less than 38 hours per week, Toll still plans to pay ordinary rates if these workers “volunteer” for overtime.
The company’s proposal to introduce fixed term contracts, a proposal which has not been rescinded, still threatens secure, full-time jobs. Toll has backed down on moves to implement a “B rate” tiered wage system under which new hires would receive up to 30 percent less than the rates paid to existing workers. The union is also calling for a 0.25 point increase in employer superannuation contributions to 15 percent. The Australian Bureau of Statistics last month announced a 3.8 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index, which vastly underestimates increases in the cost of living, for the year to June 30. In real terms, 3 percent is a pay cut, especially given that Toll workers, like those at Australia Post, did not receive a pay rise at all last year.
These claims serve only as an indictment of the massive assault being carried out against the Australian working class, accelerated by the pandemic and enforced by the trade unions. In current negotiations with Australia Post, the Communications Electrical and Plumbers Union (CEPU) has proudly noted that it is twice the national average. In key disputes over recent months, including at General Mills and McCormick Foods, unions have presented 3 percent (or “almost” 3 percent) annual pay rises as victories. The TWU has made no explicit mention of this bump, merely characterising the pay offer as “unacceptably low,” indicating that it may push workers to sign on to a figure short of the meagre 3 percent the union has previously demanded. The company responded to the workers’ vote to strike with a marginally increased pay rise offer, up from 1.5 percent in 2021 and 1.75 in 2022 to 2 percent each year. In fact, Toll’s annual revenue increased by almost one third to $6.3 billion for the year ending March 2021, while workers were subjected to a pay freeze as a result of the delayed negotiations. In exchange, workers were granted ten days paid pandemic leave. The previous EA expired in June 2020, but bargaining was deferred until April 2021 in a union-management deal that also allowed the company to slash jobs in the event of any downturn in volume as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The dispute is over a new enterprise agreement (EA), currently being negotiated between Toll and the TWU. The nationwide strike was called on Monday after 94 percent of Transport Workers Union (TWU) members at the company voted in favour of industrial action. Around 7,000 Toll truck drivers will strike for 24 hours on Friday.
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