AP/PI/AO Members,
Just a quick update to advise our members that St John cancelled today’s planned EBA negotiations.
St John advised that today’s meeting was intended to discuss the ‘emergency stream transformation’.
While we knew today’s meeting would include an outline of planned emergency stream changes, it appears St John believed this was the only purpose of the meeting.
This was news to us.
St John has advised that due to ‘ongoing consultation’ with those impacted by the emergency stream changes, they were not in a position to proceed with the meeting today.
The AEAWA has communicated our strong disappointment with today’s cancellation of negotiations. We believe many claims could still have been discussed, claims which would not be affected by any pending restructuring of the emergency stream.
We have informed St John that parties must engage in genuine ‘good faith’ efforts to advance bargaining. Our members deserve the timely construction of the new Agreement, not least because they urgently deserve an appropriate pay raise to help with the real cost of living pressures.
Any corporate restructuring outside of the EBA should not prevent the continuation of the bargaining process.
St John indicates that they will utilise this time to prepare responses to AEAWA and UWU’s claims, with the intention of a full-day meeting to go ahead on 27 May 2024.
This will be confirmed in the coming days.
Regards
AEAWA Negotiation Team