{"id":11588,"date":"2023-10-18T12:52:20","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T10:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniglobalunion.org\/?post_type=news&p=11588"},"modified":"2023-10-18T13:18:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T11:18:53","slug":"apple-retail-workers-in-australia-improve-their-jobs-with-new-collective-agreement","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/uniglobalunion.org\/news\/apple-retail-workers-in-australia-improve-their-jobs-with-new-collective-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple retail workers in Australia improve their jobs with new collective agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"
Following over 12 months of negotiations, two UNI affiliated unions, the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) and the Australian Services Union (ASU) have signed a national agreement with Apple. The pact provides retail workers with better wages; improved work classifications; better leave entitlements; more predictable schedules and fairer working hours; as well as higher pay rates for overtime work, weekend work, late night work and work on public holidays.<\/p>\r\n
An overwhelming majority of Apple workers ratified the deal with a \u201cyes\u201d vote in August 2023, and by the Fair Work Commission of Australia, a government workplace tribunal, approved the collective Agreement on Monday. The agreement will come into force on 23 October 2023.<\/p>\r\n
The highlights of the agreement are:<\/p>\r\n
<\/a>\u201cWe congratulate our affiliates in Australia for securing this collective agreement despite many challenges they have faced,\u201d said Mathias Bolton, Head of UNI Commerce<\/strong>. \u201cThis agreement not only provides Apple retail workers with strong improvements, but it also shows the big difference that collective bargaining makes in overcoming dodgy deals imposed by the employers.\u201d<\/p>\r\n “This is a game changer for Apple employees in Australia – a comprehensive agreement providing strong wages and good conditions is now locked in,\u201d said Gerard Dwyer, National Secretary-Treasurer of the SDA and UNI\u2019s Global President<\/strong>. This again shows that workers coming together in their unions to prosecute a case for fairness is a powerful force.”<\/p>\r\n Apple retail workers\u2019 last company level collective agreement was signed in 2014. In August 2022, Apple informed workers that it wanted to negotiate a new set of conditions. Instead of engaging in fair negotiations with the unions, Apple tried to push a substandard deal<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n