With almost complete EA coverage of companies across the industry, the RTBU has won a significant battle to force an unwilling employer to the bargaining table.
Loram, a company dedicated to rail grinding and profiling, has resisted efforts from the RTBU to unionise and negotiate an enterprise agreement (EA).
The RTBU has successfully achieved decent conditions for rail workers in the infrastructure area. The Victorian Loram employees could see that where an RTBU EA had been achieved, workers were better off. The RTBU set out to negotiate on their behalf, but Loram refused to engage.
The RTBU has successfully applied for a Majority Support Determination (MSD) with the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to formally commence bargaining.
An MSD is effectively an application to the FWC, backed by the signatures of over 50% of members proposed to be covered by an EA, that seeks a binding order from the FWC to force an employer to bargain. MSD’s are typically used in hostile and anti-union environments to ensure union members can enforce their ability to negotiate collectively through the RTBU.
As a global supplier of track maintenance, inspection and equipment services, Loram is a significant player in the rail industry. Providing niche services to rail companies across Australia, small teams are clustered across the Australian mainland, often working remote and dynamic locations. As contractors without an EA, enforcement of minimum standards and the protection of job security across the industry is an issue of importance to the RTBU.
Seeking to avoid their responsibility to employees, Loram have made countless arguments to resist the need for an enterprise agreement. Their most frustrating and absurd reasoning has been their failure to recognise the wishes of the local Victorian workforce, claiming that as a national employer, it would be unreasonable to do a Victorian state based EA, and that the group of employees to be covered do not represent a significant enough proportion of their overall workforce.
This is particularly absurd as the nature of the enterprise bargaining system is such that it expressly enables the negotiation of EAs for a particular region, workshop, workplace or branch of a company.
Nevertheless, the RTBU was led to the need to file legal action to force the hand of this international company, which resulted in the Commission granting an order in favour of the RTBU.
Loram appealed the decision, which was heard by a Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission on 13 November 2024 but the appeal was dismissed with the full bench declaring that the original decision contained no error.
As the original decision stands, bargaining will commence shortly for this long fought for enterprise agreement, and more battles may be on the horizon to secure members the conditions they should be entitled to.