The new Enterprise Agreement and you
What this means for the future of Apple Retail in Australia
Editor’s note, August 10: See changes to notes on clause 4.2 regarding the payment of wages for higher duties.
Hello,
What a week it has been.
If you aren’t already aware, Apple Australia announced the draft of a new Enterprise Agreement set to replace the existing one that has been in effect since 2014. This is the first major change to Apple Retail employment terms in Australia in 8 years and provides a significant opportunity for employees to have their say in how they are treated, what they are entitled to, and the future of Apple Retail in Australia.
It also provides Apple the opportunity to take advantage of us.
I encourage you all to read through the draft EA proposal in your own time; really sit down and go slow. Compare it with the previous agreement to get an understanding of what has changed. This only happens at least every once every four years and means a lot to your and the your team’s future.
We have read through the draft proposal and below are a list of changes.
A notable change about this EA, is that it now encompasses AppleCare and Engineering staff under the same agreement as Retail staff.
Minimum salary increases for the four years the EA is in effect have been set at 2.5%. (clause 3.7) - This means that your minimum wage increase year over year will be a minimum of 2.5% for the length of the agreement (4 years).
A new clause (4.2) stipulates that when team are given extra responsibility in a formal capacity, they will be compensated based on the
role they act inteam member classification they fall under.1 This is a win for the many team that are put in ‘Career Experiences’ that are in effect unpaid internships, acting in a different role (often higher) for a period of 3-12 months. These career experiences are advertised as a development pathway (generally for progression into leadership) but do not guarantee a future role. In our research, more than half of team given a career experience in our store have either resigned or not moved into a different role.Clauses 4.5 and 4.6 introduce On Call and Call Back shifts. - While not something that Apple currently utilises, these new clauses are a worrying addition because they allow the company to have employees that are on call (i.e. available always on short notice to work immediately) and to call back employees (i.e. tell an employee to come back to work after finishing a shift to continue working). The addition of these clauses sets a worrying precedent that allows Apple to further meddle with our precious Work/Life balance.
Annual leave clauses have changed (6.2): Shift workers receive an additional week of annual leave, although Apple’s definition of shift worker is unclear.
Clause 6.4 is a worrying one. Apple can now force employees to take a period of annual leave during a pandemic (i.e. instead of paying team when stores are closed, we will now have to use our own accrued annual leave in order to be paid while a store is closed.)
Definitions (15) of a part-time worker have changed. In the prior EA, part-time workers were guaranteed 19 hours of work per fortnight; this has now dropped to 15.2 hours.
Another major concern has to do with the changes to rostering. Apple will now only have to give three days notice before the commencement of a roster week (16.4); this was previously two weeks. Changes to individual shifts will be given three days notice (16.5).
A win has been the introduction of clause 16.6 which now limits the time between shifts to 12 hours instead of the previous 10. Though clause 16.7 says that we can be rostered on up to 10 hour shifts.
Clause 17 regarding working hours isn’t a change but we did want to point out that there is only one store in Australia that rosters team up until 10pm — Apple Sydney. Clause 20 similarly shows that team will only be paid for late night work if working after 10pm. Only team at Apple Sydney are scheduled to work up to 10pm (because of trading hours). This clause seems very calculated. Why is it that night work pay only kicks in after 10pm? Because no one is regularly scheduled after 10pm.
Clause 19 is a significant change and is likely being used as a bargaining chip in discussions. All team below management level will now be paid penalty rates for work on Saturdays. Previously this was only for Apple Team Member Level 1, and was a big point of resentment among team in different roles. Team could receive a promotion from Specialist to Technical Specialist, receive a corresponding pay rise, but then lose the extra pay on Saturday, but still be required to have full availability over the weekend. So far, we have seen leadership use this as a big selling point for the EA — this is a calculated effort to win votes.
Clause 22.5 introduces an expiration for Time Off In Lieu (TOIL) of 6 months. This is inherently disadvantageous to part time team members who rely on accruing TOIL in order to take large chunks of leave where they don’t have sufficient annual leave balances.
Meal allowances have been increased from $17 to $19.45 (23.2) meal allowances are rarely paid (We don’t think we’ve ever seen one) and require you to work more than 76 hours and be scheduled at least an hour of overtime. Apple team regularly work overtime, but they are seldom scheduled overtime.
28.3 shows a difference between retail and AppleCare teams, who receive an additional weekend work allowance. — This is why lumping vastly disparate teams under one EA and proposing different benefits is a concerted effort on Apple’s part to win more votes and suppress voting power.
Minimum rates of pay for retail workers can be found on page 36. — These rates of pay are the new minimum rates and do not affect your wages unless you are being paid minimum wage.
I’m sure you, like us, are shocked at some of the above proposed changes, and disappointed that some of the more basic benefits are only now being codified.
We also have a few suggestions of some changes we would like to make:
Increasing penalty rates to 150% on Saturdays and 200% on Sundays, as is common in most workplaces with weekend work.
Allowing team to cash out unused sick leave instead of forfeiting it when you resign.
Changing the night work loading to come into effect after 8pm.
Increasing the notice period of rosters back to two weeks. Increasing shift change notice periods to a week.
Removing the changes to part time workers’ minimum hours.
Removing the changes to TOIL and the new expiration clause.
Removing clauses that force team members to take their own annual leave in circumstances outside of their control like during a pandemic.
Making the clause that pays team members more for higher responsibilities retroactive and back paying the thousands of hours of work that team have put in under the guise of ‘Career Experiences’. — See note at end of article.
Another major concern are the way we are classified by role under the agreement:
We aren’t happy with the way that team with very different roles and responsibilities are lumped together. This is insulting to the work that we do in store and the unreasonably high expectations and large scope some roles have. Apple has made this list without any consultation and has not provided any reasoning as to how they classified these roles
What is most concerning about this draft EA is the pace of the implementation process: the new EA was announced on Wednesday, the first bargaining meeting is being held on Monday. Apple has not engaged in any consultation with team directly when preparing the draft agreement. They have put together this agreement and throw it on us to overwhelm us and not provided any concrete resources to ask questions or raise concerns other than a webpage on PeopleWeb and an email address. Leadership are clueless.
We have already reached out to our union representatives and they have expressed extreme concern regarding the speed at which Apple are already entering bargaining — a process that normally takes months — and the paltry amount of information that has been sent to us informing us of our representation rights.
What’s next? What can I do?
We can put up a fight and make it known that we disagree vehemently with this new proposal.
Here’s what you can do:
Read the EA carefully, highlight passages, and talk to your team about them. Talk to everyone about it. Stop people in corridors. Speak to people you’ve never spoken to before. Speak to people on breaks. Make noise.
Vote ‘no’ and encourage others to do the same. Make it known that we don’t agree.
Nominate yourself or another person as a bargaining representative. If you want to have a seat at the table during bargaining, or know someone who you would like to represent you, you can nominate yourself/them by sending an email to NEA2022@group.apple.com
Ask questions and propose changes. Apple has said that they want us to “get involved” and they are encouraging us to provide feedback or comments. You can send your feedback directly to the relevant team by emailing NEA2022@group.apple.com
Join your union. We cannot stress this enough. Unions are formed for this very reason, to negotiate and provide clarity to teams about their workplace agreements. Apple is taking advantage of low union membership to push this agreement through. (For more information on this, see our previous issue)
If you have found this email helpful, please share it with your team. No matter who they are or which store, now is the time for us to sit up and pay attention. This is our future that is being discussed and we must demand a voice.
In solidarity,
Apple Together Australia
Edit August 10: We would like to clarify that this clause only affects team who take on responsibilities that mean they fall within a different classification under the agreement e.g. An Expert who acts in a Lead role (A Team Member Level 1 acting in a Team Member Level 2 role); this would not apply to someone already classified under the same role they are acting in e.g a Genius acting in a Lead role (both Team Member Level 2) — We plan on disputing the way Apple has chosen to classify roles under the Team Member Classifiaction Schedule
What are your thoughts on printing this and putting it In the break room? Perhaps an abridged version highlighting all the changes.
Thanks for going through all of this, it’s super helpful - I will point out that every Aus store that has a late night trade rosters team until 10pm. Chadstone has it 3 nights a week, others 2 or 3. So - Sydney has the most common configuration for this.