First ever EBA signed at NECA

Members at National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA) Education have won their workplace’s first-ever Enterprise Bargaining Agreement after a determined industrial campaign.

The electrical teachers also won a pay rise of 4%, after holding ongoing industrial action, including a stop work meeting reported on in the Term 2 edition of The Point.

At this small workplace with high union density, the sub-branch will now set its sights on achieving parity with colleagues in TAFE colleges.

Members at the company’s North Carlton and Dandenong sites took strike action Thursday 9 May, demanding action on a long overdue wage claim.

Some third-year apprentices taught by NECA Educators earn more money than their teachers! Yet negotiations on wages were stalled over a year after they began, and as a result NECA was losing staff to better paying competitors.

NECA Education teachers, 95% of whom are IEU members, were joined by supporters from the IEU, the Electrical Trades Union and Trades Hall at their stonework rally on 9 May. Addressing the crowd that day, IEU General Secretary David Brear said IEU members work not just in schools but in a really broad variety of settings’ including for private providers like NECA.

‘But there’s a few things that our members have in common. One is a real commitment to quality education. We take it really seriously that our members provide quality education, in this case, to the next generation of electricians.

‘Another thing that our members have in common is a determination that education is important and that the remuneration and conditions people work under in education need to be fair and reasonable.’

The NECA win is a credit to the workforce at this small employer, who proved solidarity and persistence remain a powerful force no matter the history or size of the workplace.