A less “ambitious” proposal for a national suburban newspapers enterprise agreement has been drafted by News Ltd. Alliance representatives met News Ltd Group Employee Relations Manager Andrew Biocca last Thursday 24 November where the company outlined its new draft of the agreement. Several legal technicalities were raised by the union over how the proposed agreement will co-exist with the award in light of the new IR laws. A revised draft has been forwarded by the company and distributed to members for discussion.

This draft would standardise pay rates but includes separate schedules for the four newspaper groups that allows each group to keep the various conditions that differ from the others. For example, Cumberland has a superior payment for photographers using their own cars. That provision remains in the Cumberland schedule of the agreement but does not flow on to the other groups whose photographers get the ATO kilometre rate. In the same way, Messenger Newspapers in Adelaide keep their $11 Council meeting payment, Leader in Melbourne keep their 6 weeks and three days annual leave, and Quest in Brisbane keep their $10 mobile phone allowance.

This draft makes the task of certifying the agreement under the current IR legislation more achievable. Standardising all conditions from four agreements and three awards into a single national agreement is a complex task even without the horse-trading that is inevitable. Not surprisingly, News Ltd isn’t keen to make the most generous provisions the new national standard. Under this proposal, certain things are left in the “too hard basket” to allow this first national agreement to be made and certified promptly.