What about the workers?
From George: I am a retired NRMA patrolman and I am concerned about the impact the changes to the industrial laws will have on the wages, conditions and family life of people working at the NRMA. How can the Board protect our rights as provided for by both the previous and the new NRMA Constitution?
Chris said: My policy would have the Board supporting the rights of all employees at work. (see my candidate statement) My experience as a senior manager, contractor and as a life long trade unionist is that collective bargaining around wages, conditions and work practices produces the most equitable and sustainable outcomes for both employees and the organisation.
- As you rightly point out, one of the objects in the NRMA Constitution states:
- 3(c) "To provide present & former employees of and contractors to the Company and the families of such persons with conditions, facilities and benefits conducive to good working of the Company, and (…) to provide for the welfare of such persons whether by way of grants of money or other aid, superannuation or otherwise."
The founding fathers (and yes they
were all male) of the NRMA understood that secure and respected employees
would be conducive to the good working
of the
Company. I am not sure whether the current Board and senior management
team fully understands how conducive good conditions, facilities and benefits
for all NRMA employees will be to the future of the NRMA.
There are several types of employment contracts and industrial agreements in place at the NRMA that cover the master servant relationship. The patrols are covered by an EBA; some ‘white collar’ workers are under an Award and others, including the senior executives and middle managers, by an individually negotiated contract.
Let's look firstly at the individual contracts. There is little information available but this year’s Annual Report shows that the remuneration packages of three of the five senior NRMA executives have gone from under $400,000 a year in 2004 to anything up to $700,000 in 2005. Clearly individual contracts are working for some people!
I estimate
the differential between the pay packet and perks of the CEO and that of
the lowest paid employees in the NRMA is now about 35:1. Probably
a more relevant metric is that the cost of the gang of 5 in the senior executive
team, ($2.2m) is equivalent to around 32,000 annual memberships. That’s
a lot of new members.
These executive remuneration packages are negotiated with and set by a subcommittee of the NRMA Board. These custodians of the member’s funds would argue that you need to offer competitive salaries to attract good performers to the roles. Well you can make up your own mind about whether their performance last year justifies these sorts of salaries.
These salary levels reflect common symbiotic relationships between Board’s and senior executives. By approving these sorts of salaries, Directors are able to buy the goodwill and good offices of the senior management team who then put the considerable resources of the organisation behind getting the incumbent directors elected and re elected. But the NRMA constitution specifically exclude this you say. True, but the rules do not solve a systemic problem in the governance of mutual organisations. Such is the power of incumbency. (see NRMA Good Governance: an oxymoron?)
Other employees covered by individual contracts have fared differentially, some of the mates of the organizational power elite who have come into the organisation have done very nicely whilst in other cases the contract has been used to exit people with limited opportunities for redress, particularly if they were not members of the relevant union.
Fundamentally, the provisions
in all these individual contracts are anchored to the minimum and maximum
standards set by the relevant industrial legislation
and awards established over the last 100 years. In most cases the NRMA
contracts contain provisions that are better than the standards set by
the industrial
relations system but nowhere are they inferior.
With the so-called IR reforms this is about to change. The historical platform of pay and conditions that underpin these individual contracts will rapidly erode as award provisions are stripped back to a bare minimum and the power of collective bargaining is eroded. In the next economic downturn those with needed skills and the right connections will continue to do well under individual contracts. For most new employees however who have skills that are in ready supply, they will be on a downward slippery slide to even longer hours and less family friendly workplaces. Free to negotiate individually and denied access to the collective bargaining process these new starters will be hard pressed to secure the sort of wages, conditions and job security currently enjoyed by NRMA employees. Is this the sort of future we want for our offspring, some about to enter the world of work for the first time? They will be free of course, free to work or free to starve.
Now for awards and agreements. The current enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) with the patrols took a while to hammer out through collective bargaining and with the involvement of the Metalworkers Union. The outcome of the EBA provides these employees with a more certain and secure future and the Company with greater operational flexibility and improved productivity. I don’t think either side of the negotiating table came away entirely happy but the EBA has brought the stability and certainty needed for all parties to now get on with it.
The challenge for all employees whether working under an industrial agreement or an individual contract is - how to best meet the needs of members, remember them?
Oh and don’t forget to join the union, it’s the cheapest form of employment insurance you will ever find.