The consolidation of seven Roads and Maritime Service (RMS) industrial instruments into one award has been finalised, enshrining some important wins for members and bringing to an end two long years of negotiations.

The Roads and Maritime Services Consolidated Salaried Award 2014 was successfully agreed upon by the PSA and other RMS salaried staff unions in June this year, with only the ‘no extra claims’ clause still being disputed.

The PSA engaged members and delegates in widespread, ongoing consultation throughout the process.
No existing conditions were lost or traded away, despite RMS’s indications last year that it would try to remove a number of conditions from the award and turn them into policy. On the contrary, some important improvements were made to existing entitlements. These include a defined payment for disturbance allowance (now an award entitlement); the expansion of some crib break entitlements to include staff assigned to safety stations and enhanced sick leave provisions.

RMS threw up a number of roadblocks throughout negotiations, including an unsuccessful attempt to reduce PSA representation to just one official and one member. The PSA objected and was able to involve one official and three members, as we had initially intended.

An appeal against the ‘no extra claims clause’ has been lodged by the PSA. The imposition of such a clause may have sector-wide implications, as it may flow on to other public service awards.