Union push to tear up Apple pay deal it claims sent workers backwards

An activist retail union has filed a claim to rip up Apple’s Australian pay deal, claiming it leaves the world’s largest technology company’s 3200 store workers worse off on a host of measures.

A Retail and Fast Food Workers Union analysis submitted to the workplace umpire as part of its bid to scrap Apple stores’ 2014 enterprise agreement argues most staff would enjoy more workplace rights – including better weekend pay and rostering – on default industry pay rules.

In an escalation of a long-running pay dispute, the union’s campaign dovetails with growing union pressure on the $US2.4 trillion ($3.5 trillion) company in the US, where two stores voted to join labour unions last year in a challenge to Apple’s image as a coveted employer.

Workers negotiate pay agreements with employers to achieve a range of terms that are superior to the basic legal conditions under which staff in their industry are paid, and those agreements cannot be ratified unless those workers are better off under the new terms compared with the award.

But RAFFWU secretary Josh Cullinan, whose union is smaller but more activist than its rivals, said the Apple agreement should never have been approved.

“Under the current agreement, workers have to be available 24/7 to work any shift they get rostered onto, they’ve got no rights to consecutive days off, no rights to a weekend, no rights to a 12-hour break between shifts, no rights to Sundays off, no rights to core minimum conditions in the award,” he said.

‘We plan to resume negotiations for a new enterprise agreement this month and, as always, remain committed to fair and good faith bargaining.’

Apple spokesman

Apple and its employees have been locked in negotiations over a new pay deal after its current agreement expired in 2018, with unions slamming the company over its approach to bargaining, and staff voting down an offer in October last year. The expired deal keeps operating until the industrial tribunal terminates it or a new one is negotiated.

An Apple spokesman said the company prided itself on offering staff strong pay and benefits but would not specifically address questions on the union’s pay and conditions analysis. “We plan to resume negotiations for a new enterprise agreement this month and, as always, remain committed to fair and good faith bargaining,” said the spokesman.