Mel: [00:00:00] Hi everyone, and welcome to the first of our series of four punchy episodes about people changes in the workplace, and what that means for your communication. If we haven't met before, my name's Mel Loy and I'm recording this podcast on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people, here in Meanjin, Brisbane.

And this series is designed to give you the lowdown on what to expect, in particular change scenarios involving people. It'll be especially useful if you are new to internal or change comms or even change management or even leadership. Also, a quick note to say that this is all from the Australian perspective.

So we do have labor laws here that will be quite different to elsewhere in the world, but some of the key concepts and principles will still be largely universal. So let's get into it. Today we are talking about enterprise agreements or sometimes called enterprise bargaining agreements. EAs, EBAs, if you are not familiar with these, these are essentially a legally binding contract between an employer or [00:01:00] workplace and their employees; and they set out the pay and working conditions through negotiations with unions. In Australia, we have many, many different unions and they've really helped to shape the excellent employment conditions we enjoy today. We also have what's called modern awards. Now those for you, of you who don't know, they are industry-wide minimum rules or standards. So they are, for example, what sets the minimum hourly pay rate for hospitality workers, for example.

Now when you have an EA in your workplace and it leaves your employees better off compared to the modern award than the EA supersedes the modern award. Okay? So the EA overrides it. Now every few years your EA will expire. And in the lead up to that negotiations usually begin with unions and employee representatives.

I'm going to step you through a typical process of what that involves and what it means for your communication. So step number one is that you announce the EAs [00:02:00] negotiations are going to begin. So typically as a comms pro, you will work with an industrial relations specialist on the communication. Some organisations have IR specialists in-house, others get consultants in for this work.

Whatever it might be. The first step will be to announce to the organisation that the EA negotiations are going to begin. It's usually a pretty high level statement. It just makes people aware and the IR specialists should take care of communication with the unions. Now, in this comms, you will help people understand the process and what to expect.

So for example, we'll have regular meetings. Eventually you'll vote, blah, blah, blah. Now attached to this is usually the official communication called a notice of employee, representational rights. Um, just shorten that to a NERR that's what they call it, Nerr - NERR, that will be attached or issued. And it gives employees their right to choose a bargaining representative to negotiate on their behalf.

Now, the NERR has to follow a really strict formula format that's stipulated by the Fair [00:03:00] Work Commission, which is the regulator. If you don't follow that, the commission may not approve your final agreement. So it's a tiny thing, but you wanna make sure you get that right. Now at this point, you should also be doing a briefing with all the leaders in the organisation to outline the process and what the initial offer could look like.

You might also do an online information session for staff, so they are able to ask questions about the process as well. I would highly recommend setting up an intranet site or something similar, a portal that's easily accessible for all employees. It's, you really have to be aware of equity, of access to information in this, and on this site is where you will post all the comms that go out and overview of the process, et cetera, et cetera, so you have one source of truth to direct people to.

So again, really important that all employees who are covered by the EA have equitable access to information about what's going on. So that's step one. It's literally just going, Hey, this is what's gonna happen. Step two [00:04:00] is negotiations. Now there will be a series of meetings with unions and employee representatives usually over many, many months.

In these meetings, your organisation will put forward their offer for the new E A. And the unions and employee representatives will have time to question the content, put forward their demands, et cetera. Those draft agreements could include everything from pay rates and penalty rates. So if you're not aware of what penalty rates in Australia, depending on where you work, you might get paid more for working on a Sunday or overnight shifts, uh, uniform allowances, how many breaks you have during a shift, how long they are training, development, et cetera, et cetera.

Before these meetings begin. The employee representatives who will be at these meetings are confirmed, so again, these might be a team member who has been nominated to represent their colleagues or, and, and or, uh, union representatives. After each meeting, it's a really good idea, idea to then send a comms to the whole staff, assuming that most of them would [00:05:00] be covered with the top five key takeaways from the meeting and what is expected to be discussed at the next meeting.

Keeping the unions on side as much as possible during this phase is pretty crucial, so I would also share that comms with them before sending it out to make sure they concur with the key takeaways. You might also be something that you discuss at the end of each of these meetings with the unions. Just saying, okay, what are the five key takeaways we're gonna share from today's meeting?

The unions will also send out their own comms, and it's important to realise that you will have absolutely no say in what they say. I have seen all Sorts of things being sent by unions. Some of it, you know, fair criticism, some of it downright vitriolic. If you have an inkling that a union might be on that vitriolic end of the spectrum, you also need to have a comm strategy about how you will respond to those messages.

So a set of a key of approved key messages, like with any other comms plan, is really, really crucial. [00:06:00] And again, you do need to tow a bit of a fine line between responding to what the unions have said and not inflaming the situation further. Now, apart from sending out your five key takeaways, make sure you also then replicate that on your intranet site.

And if you've got remote staff or people who aren't in front of a device very, very often, can't access email, internet, whatever, consider sending them a text message with a link to a site or something that they can access after each meeting. You could also consider having monthly teams meetings or some sort of similar webinar where you provide an update on the negotiations.

You'll also have to consider the staff who aren't covered by your EA and how you're going to reassure them that they will still be getting a fair deal. Alright, so we've gone through the negotiations. As I said, this can take many, many months. I've seen it take three months, I've seen it take 18, whatever.

But eventually you'll get to phase three, which is voting. So you have a proposed new agreement and you're [00:07:00] ready for people to vote on it. A couple of things to consider here. Number one. Make sure you make it really clear. What are the differences between the current EA and the proposed EA so that people can see what's changed and make it simple.

EAs have traditionally been written full of technical jargon, and that makes it really difficult for the average person to understand if you do have an opportunity to influence. See if you can get the EA written in really clear, plain language, and some HR and IR professionals are all over this already.

I have worked with a couple, but if you don't have that opportunity, then put together a simplified summary for people. There is quite a bit of activity in this voting stage, so firstly, you need to release the draft to EA and provide a review period, which. It's typically around 21 days, and in this time you need to have some info sessions for your leaders and all your staff outlining the key differences between that existing and draft ea [00:08:00] and what the voting process involves.

Now when you do these comms, it is your opportunity to shout from the rooftops about what's so great about the proposed EA. There is a good chance that union comms will not be as positive, so you need to be very clear about the benefits for your staff in that proposed agreement. I'd really recommend using simple graphics to show what those benefits are so they're quickly and easily understood by people.

Now, after the review period, voting then open. Most organisations will, uh, bring in a third party platform, organisation, whatever, to facilitate the voting so it's fair and transparent. And they will usually take care of the comms for this, but you will be able to review them. You might also need to supply them with, uh, lists of emails and phone numbers of all employees because they will send a voting link directly to each person, and it's a unique link for each person, so they can only vote once, but it's still an anonymous vote.

Um, they will then be able to provide you on updates on the [00:09:00] progress of voting. So, you know, 60% have now voted. The vote itself is really simple. They literally just ask, do you agree or not with this draft, EA, that's it. Now, during this time, there's some other comms activities that you need to be doing.

One is a media holding statement based on potential union communication. If they are being particularly negative about the proposed agreement and they get some interest from the media, you need to be ready to respond. You should also start doing some scenario planning for potential outcomes from the vote.

So if it's a yes, what do your comms say? If it's a no, what will you say? Like everything it pays to be prepared. So that's step three or phase three is the voting period, which brings us to vote to phase four, which is the outcome of the vote. Now, if it's a no. Then essentially it's back to the drawing board and the whole process starts all over again.

Obviously really costly and time consuming, and by the way, the existing EA [00:10:00] stays in place, even if it's expired, until the new EA comes into effect. So people are still covered during this time by an agreement. Now, if it's a yes vote, awesome, but it's not over yet. The proposed agreement then goes to the Fair Work Commission for review.

This could take up to three months. So again, a long process. If they accept it, then it's time to celebrate, share the good news with the team, let them know when the new award comes into effect, what to expect, et cetera. Again, I would do a series of teams meetings, webinars that outline all the new benefits, the timeline allow for questions, et cetera.

If pay rates are changing and there's back pay coming in. Obviously that's gonna be of particular interest. So one thing I've done in the past is I've used personas to demonstrate pay differences. So let's say you have Theresa, who is a nurse and Theresa was earning X dollars per hour with x percent loading on Sundays and after hours under the new agreement.

If she does the same amount of hours as per [00:11:00] usual, she'll be X dollars better off per year. Now for some of the lower paid people, those extra few hundred dollars might not feel like much, but that's when you could use some comparisons to make it meaningful. So for example, you know that meant that much money is enough to cover five trolleys of groceries or two nights away on the Gold Coast or whatever might be important to people.

Now, if the agreement is rejected by Fair Work, then again it could be back to negotiations. It could be rejected based on something that's pretty small. That's an easy fix. Or they could say, this is grossly unfair compared to the modern award. Hopefully that won't happen. Usually it doesn't because people have put in the work to get there.

But again, in your scenario planning, you should have messaging ready in case it is rejected. Now once your agreement is accepted by the commission, it is made publicly available on their website. So right now you could hop on there and see what EAs are out there right now if you want to do some light reading.

Okay. Let's do a quick recap of the process and what it [00:12:00] means for your comms. Number one is the initial notification. The HR team will issue the official notice that negotiations are beginning and call for representatives. That's called a N. They will also talk to the unions. Now, it's during this time that you set up your intranet site, hold information, sessions about what to expect, et cetera.

Number two, negotiations begin and these will take place over many, many months. You need to do a quick recap, comms after each meeting and monitor Union Comms. Phase three is when voting opens. So after a review period of the proposed EA voting will then open, and typically this is facilitated by a third party.

During this time, you'll give instructions on how to vote, what the potential outcomes are, but importantly why you also think your people should accept the proposed agreement. And then phase four, voting outcomes. If it's a yes, awesome. It goes to the fair work commission, which will then either accept or reject it.

If it's a no, then it's back to negotiations. You need to [00:13:00] scenario plan for these moments so you're well prepared. Alright, team, that's it for episode one of This People Change Series. Next week we're going to be tackling restructures. Stay tuned for that. And as always, if there is a topic you would like me to cover on the show, please let me know.

This is the People Show. I'm all ears. In the meantime, keep doing amazing things and bye for now.