October 2016: Thales Company Council Update
Dear Colleague
Your company council representatives, DTS Ronnie Fardell and RSS, Ed Hardy and myself met with Senior Thales Management and HR for our regular quarterly meetings. The following was discussed:
Business Update
Thales gave us an update on how their business is going. There were general areas of concern and certain part of the business were doing well. They certainly highlighted areas where action on costs were needed and a recovery plan was under development.
They also stated that the PDD process was now concluded and Thales Training were being contacted and then formal individual plans would be evolved. We also asked if there was any impacts on Thales with regards to the Enterprise Act and they were going to come back to us with details.
2016 Pay
As you may be aware, the RMT have still not accepted the 2016 Pay offer and have indeed rejected the 1.7% offer that has been implemented and further discussions have taken place.
In DTS, this has delivered an improved offer that deals with local issues surrounding the overtime rate and outstanding monies that are owed and we believe that pending a formal letter from the company that we will be in a position to fully discuss this with our reps and members and if agreeable recommend acceptance to our National Executive.
In RSS, we have still not progressed past the initial position in terms of reaching agreement. We have asked for our members to be included into the DTS A-Z Terms and conditions and your reps and management are reviewing that document over the next week. We have also stated that we want the Annual Leave Back Pay issue resolved once and for all and we are looking for two years back pay for those affected from when the correct annual pay was implemented in mid-2013.
They should be getting back us very shortly on that matter.
Changing Rosters in RSS (LT Contract)
A proposal has been sent from management looking for volunteers to work Sunday to Thursday. Any roster change is contentious, sometimes for those changing and sometimes for those left behind. Impacts are often subtle such as lose of overtime and work life balance. You union have agreed to formal meetings in the next two weeks to explore the proposal and report this back to our members.
2017 Pay
We notified Thales that we intended to lodge next year’s pay claim in the next few months. Whilst we note their financial forecast, we will lodge a pay claim that we believe is fair to our members that have helped the company achieve in the past and also have won contracts such as 4LM which have the potential to be extremely profitable. We will keep you informed of any developments.