Collective Agreement-Making

The negotiations by the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) with construction companies and the Master Builders Association of Victoria for a 2008-2011 Victorian Construction Agreement template have been concluded.

Bargaining this round has been simplified by the CFMEU seeking a replica of the same terms as the 2005-2008 post-WorkChoices Agreement with:

  • Increased rates
  • Annual % increases
  • Changed regulations about working on Rostered-Days Off, and
  • Increased allowances.

Employers and the Master Builders Association of Victoria (MBAV) have been disappointed that the new template does not provide any productivity offsets and retains the same "industry timetable" including the same number of site-wide rostered days-off, and effectively can be used by the CFMEU for industry-wide bargaining without negotiation for employer-specific requirements.

The "cottage/housing industry" carve-out is retained. That is, the Victorian Construction Agreement template applies to "building and construction work" as defined by the National Building and Construction Industry Award 2000 (the Award). Deacons can provide a copy of the proposed Victorian Construction Agreement template on request.

In the 2005/2006 bargaining round, a Victorian Civil Construction Agreement was prepared in near identical terms by the CFMEU and entered by a number of civil construction employers.

The Construction Agreement can be entered now by construction industry employers - either (for employers who entered a pre-WorkChoices certified agreement) by lodging a "rollover" agreement in the AIRC, or by making a new collective agreement and lodging with the Workplace Authority. Note that there are significant implications for a builder proposing to enter the Victorian Construction Agreement with the CFMEU. There are a range of agreement provisions that are likely to have an impact - for example:

  • site allowances - that is, a detailed procedure for the calculation of a site allowance for "construction work within the commercial/industrial sector of the building industry in the State of Victoria" where the value of the project exceeds $2.3M. The designated site allowance figure varies from $1.90 per hour to $3.55 per hour depending on the value of the project

compulsory employer contributions to the Incolink fund (for those employers not already contributing to Incolink);

  • payment of a training levy – i.e. an additional amount paid by employers into Incolink (per employee) each week
  • payments of income protection and trauma insurance (paid by the employer to Incolink)
  • an hours of work provision that provides for a 36 hour week – and allows for a nine day fortnight as the tenth day in each fortnightly cycle as an RDO
  • various penalties for shift-work (double time) and weekend work
  • employer to supply safety equipment and designated clothing, and
  • payment of a multi-storey allowance.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.