Operational Staff Agreement 2007

The CFA Board, on Monday 21 January, approved administrative arrangements to facilitate payments contained in the proposed Operational Staff Agreement 2007 (the Agreement) and associated Deeds of Agreement.

The Agreement will now be submitted to the Workplace Authority, after which it will be the subject of a vote by employees. The payments will be made prior to the employee ballot, which has to take place before formal lodgement of the Agreement.

The administrative arrangements for giving effect to backpay are as follows:-

Pay period end date	Date salary is credited to employees	Payments to be made
14 February 2008	12 February 2008	- New wage rates paid on fortnight salary (3% increase) - new superable salary loaded
28 February 2008	26 February 2008	- wages back pay from 1 March 2007 - super arrears from 1 March 2007 - overtime back pay from 1 March 2007 - higher duties back pay from 1 March 2007
13 March 2008	12 March 2008	- 1 March 2008 wage increase (3%) - new superable salary loaded
27 March 2008	26 March 2008	- all allowances back pay from 1 September 2005

Copies of the proposed Agreement and associated Deeds are available on the CFA online under HR/Employee Relations/Operational Staff Agreement or by clicking here (members only).

Salary sacrifice

Within the Agreement, there is a provision for operational staff to request salary sacrifice of their ESSS Superannuation employee contributions. Unfortunately, this particular provision cannot be made available until formal lodgement of the Agreement. Only when it is lodged can the Minister for Finance make the necessary declaration. This will be done at the earliest opportunity and staff employed under the Agreement will be advised as soon as it takes place.

In the meantime, a number of staff have, in anticipation of being able to salary sacrifice their ESSS contributions, submitted a form to the CFA pay office opting for salary sacrifice.

You may wish to do the same so that you can take advantage of salary sacrifice at the earliest opportunity once the necessary declaration is made. The appropriate form will be available on the CFA Intranet shortly.