COVID-19 Industrial Working Group

As the Australian government has moved to a 3-Step Framework for a COVIDSafe Australia and to nationally reopen to a state of ‘COVID Normal’, wherever it is safe to do so, by December 2020, this Industry Hub will no longer be maintained. However the business tools and general information on the Hub will remain on this site until September 2021.

The industrial arm of the Bus Industry Confederation is APTIA - the Australian Public Transport Industrial Association (APTIA).

APTIA has an Industrial Working Group of 38 representatives across the Australian bus and coach industry from small to large organisations delivering moving people services in a variety of tasks including public transport, school services, long distance and touring, charter and express services. The goal of the group is to facilitate an industrial relations environment by reaching an agreed national approach to issues in which our industry operates. 

The group comes together frequently throughout the year to ensure the ongoing IR agenda is responsive and meets the remit of the APTIA and BIC councils, including:

• representing Industry at a national level to respond to industrial relations changes such as the Fair Work Act and Work Health and Safety Act which may impact on the bus and coach industry
• determining industrial relations policy for the benefit of its members and provision of explanatory guidance notes in the interpretation of the Passenger Vehicle Transportation Award and the understanding of industrial legislation
• assessment and review of the impacts of the FWA and other federal legislation affecting the industrial environment of employees of bus and coach transport services.

 

Implications of the decision in the Workpac Pty Ltd v. Rossato case

A copy of Professor Stewart's presentation provides valuable background of the decision in the Workpac Pty Ltd v. Rossato case. A full recording of the seminar with questions will be available shortly. APTIA has also written a paper on the implications of the decision which can be found here.

APTIA is obtaining written legal advices and also monitoring the outcome of potential legislation from the A-G's Round table discussions and potential challenges to the Rossato decision. The BIC Media Release can be viewed here.

APTIA will call an IWG meeting over the next few weeks to consider the advices and a further response. In the meantime APTIA recommends that members seek their own legal advices and follow further information provided from State Associations and from the BIC.


COVIDSafe App - Impact Statement

The BIC supports the Australian government’s CovidSafe App as an integral step to slow the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The health, wellbeing and economic value of our industry is paramount and the sooner we work together to stop the spread of COVID-19, the sooner restrictions will be lifted, and we can return to normality. To download the app click here.

Read the Media Release here regarding the BIC and APTIA's support of the COVIDSafe App. 

IWG Activities

An important current role for the group is to bring their combined experience to the table in identifying current and emerging issues, discuss various approaches in the management of Covid-19 in the workplace and to make recommendations to APTIA and the BIC to assist Members and the broader bus and coach industry.

IWG Meetings

Thirty members of APTIA's Industrial Working Group participated in a video and face to face meeting at the BusNSW's office in Parramatta on March 25. It was a full IR agenda that covered the work program for APTIA's current advocacy work for industry. These will be outlined in the April edition of Everybody Out.

The agenda of the IWG meeting included significant discussion surrounding BIC's proposed strategic approach to assist Industry in the management of Covid-19 in their workplaces and business continuation. The agenda relating to Covid-19 can be downloaded here.

The IWG endorsed the strategies outlined by the BIC as follows:

• The BIC will provide regular updates of its Covid-19 Bus & Coach Industry Workplace Guide (Executive Guide) which will include actions such as bus cleaning to ensure safety of employees and passengers on the buses.
• The BIC will develop an advocacy document in support of public transport as an essential service to be presented to state/territory governments and the federal government.
• The BIC will engage with its Transport Authority members to agree and provide ownership for the Industry/Government strategy.
• In the deregulated sector, the BIC advocacy should be based around a rescue package for school tourism and local charter/express and the tourism sector generally (ACCI tourism taskforce).
• Trade media communications - the BIC to produce a Covid-19 Industry web page. BIC E-Bulletin and Industry web page will be used as the core to the Industry communications strategy.
• The strategies of APTIA to support the industry were also endorsed as set out below:
  

  - The APTIA bulletin 'Everybody Out' will return as a monthly publication and be used to provide a question and answer platform to those questions which APTIA receives from its members.

  - Weekly video meetings will be available to APTIA members to enable face to face discussions on various problems arising from an employment perspective.

  - The Industrial Working Group will meet by video link each month until the crisis has passed to enable sharing of information between members about how they are coping with their employment issues during the crisis.

  - Subject to further discussions with the State Associations, APTIA will consider initiating discussions with the trade unions with a view to varying the PVTA to allow better rostering, the ability to reduce ordinary hours to save jobs, to mandate taking of annual leave, providing a longer spread of annual leave by paying half-pay and agreeing to shut down terms. 
  

  - Maintain contact with the Prime Minister, Deputy PM, Industrial Relations Minister, Attorney General's and other key Ministers to ensure that bus public transport issues are understood in relation to Covid-19 impacts.