The simmering dispute between Commonwealth Bank and the Finance Sector Union over the terms of a bank-wide pay rise may be put to a second, and digital, vote of unionised bank staff, after a drawn out mail-in ballot over protected industrial action failed to reach the 50 per cent participation needed.
CommBank had proposed a pay rise of 1.5 per cent, backdated to 1 July 2020. The union is campaigning for a pay rise of 3.0 per cent, broadly in line with industry norms.
Industrial relations news service Workplace Express late on Friday reported that the FSU “might fork out for an electronic ballot for protected action - or push for a ‘no’ vote on the Commonwealth Bank enterprise agreement - after an AEC postal ballot that clashed with Christmas, COVID-19 and mail delays.”
The FSU told its members that “unfortunately, the ballot will not be carried into securing the protections because we didn’t make 50 per cent participation. We were extremely close though, and if we had reached the required participation rate, all protections would have been awarded with a resounding ‘yes' vote .... It’s painfully close to being a great outcome.”
A twist to this periodic wrangle between the bank and the industry union is that CBA is proposing to unilaterally apply a more generous, if uneven, pay rise, without waiting for a vote (by all employees) on the proposed enterprise agreement, or any second vote on industrial action by FSU members.
This tactic (which the bank employed in 2010) is subject to hearings at the Fair Work Commission over “good faith bargaining”.
In December, with the union ballot over protected action underway, CBA upgraded its offer to an across the board pay rise of 3.25 per cent for the majority of its staff whose employment conditions are defined by the enterprise agreement.
For those staff subject to separate agreements or unique employment contracts the bank proposed to limit any pay rise of 3.25 per cent to those earning up to A$75,000.
For those on a salary band of $75,000 to $110,000 the bank’s offer is a pay rise of 2.25 per cent.
For bank employees on individual contracts earning more $110,000 CBA proposed a pay rise of 2.0 per cent.
The FSU recently told members the bank’s revised offer was “not necessarily in the direction that union members have been pushing – but nonetheless, it’s positive progress.
“This is CBA’s best pay offer to date. But it’s still not 3 per cent for everyone.” Most recently, the FSU told members: “We remain close to agreement.”
More aggravating, at least on the FSU rhetoric, is CBA’s demand to scrap the 12 rostered days off provided under the current EA.
The FSU has been telling members this amounts to a pay cut of 5 per cent.
Containing wage increases (and weaning staff away from loyalty to the trade union via separate contracts) is a priority for Commonwealth Bank, given the 6.9 per cent surge in operating expenses reported in the group’s results for the December 2020 half (released last Wednesday).
Underlying cost growth the