NEGOTIATIONS AT THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY MANAGEMENT BRIEF

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The management at the Chocolate Factory has been looking at the future and feel that if they are to survive they must move into new markets. They have recently begun a dynamic marketing campaign around the chocolate bilby and a number of orders have started to come in. With this new initiative, it is felt that some changes need to be made.

Senior management is happy to negotiate with the union and is not interested in negotiating with employees directly. They are aware the National Employment Standards and the award form a safety net and so think their starting point can be those matters.

As wages already exceed the federal minimum wage, this is not an issue.

The management also wishes to pursue the following issues:

Greater flexibility of hours to increase the time in which ordinary hours of pay are worked over a monthly period.

Increased use of casual labour.

Banking of Rostered Days Off (RDOs) (rather than taking RDOs as they fall, accruing them to be taken during off-peak periods rather than during the peak season).

Reduction of absenteeism.

Cashing out of annual leave

Concern has also been expressed at the increase in Workcover costs arising from the spate of accidents, and the persistent manual handling injuries. The accidents appear to have led to the union being more noticeable of late with the organiser and the unions WH&S officer (who is exercising their right of entry as a permit holder under the Work Health and Safety Act 2012) around more often. More management control over

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when and how often the union comes on site would be desirable in the eyes of some supervisors.

In terms of the expansion of the production line into the canteen, this is crucial to the factorys long-term profitability and therefore future. There will be unsettling disruption during the construction and commissioning stages. Some managers have argued this offers them the possibility of reorganising work in a way that will enable production to occur with more casual staff and lower skilled staff. The operation of the canteen has been expensive and management wants to replace it with the minimum required under Safe Work Australia.

Although there have been modest wage increases for the past three years, the company is wary of the employment ramifications of a large wage increase. The union has flagged it will be seeking a 3-year agreement, and management feels this is acceptable but would consider a four year agreement as well. They are aware that other firms in the industry have agreed to wage increases in the area of 3.5% to 4.0% per year.

It is understood that the union will also raise issues such as parental leave, increased domestic violence leave and redundancy payments. As paid parental leave has not previously been an entitlement, there would be some additional cost in the HR budget to accommodate a new payment system. The management is happy to include both the individual flexibility and dispute resolution model clauses.

However what needs to be avoided is industrial action - maintaining production levels during this peak period is important and should not be needlessly jeopardised. Senior management has indicated that the management negotiators must keep an eye on the overall budgetary impact of the agreement.