News

Employees have voted in favour of Aurizon's Queensland Train Crew and Transport Operations Enterprise Agreement.

75.32% of employees voted in favour of the proposed agreement in the ballot that ran from 20 - 27 July 2015.

The results of the ballot were 946 votes for the Train Crew and Transport Operations EA and 310 votes against.

The successful ballot marks Aurizon's third and final Queensland Enterprise Agreement to be given the green light by employees following more than two years of enterprise bargaining with unions.

Earlier this month employees voted in favour of the Queensland Construction and Maintenance Enterprise Agreement, following on from the approval of the Queensland Staff Enterprise Agreement in January this year.

The three agreements together will cover approximately 5,000 Queensland based employees, which is the majority of Aurizon's workforce.

Subject to the approval by the Fair Work Commission of the Queensland Construction and Maintenance Enterprise Agreement and the Queensland Train Crew and Transport Operations Enterprise Agreement, Aurizon employees will be covered by three modern enterprise agreements, containing competitive pay and benefits and modern employment conditions.

With the three enterprise agreements, Aurizon will be in a position to streamline its operations and further its workplace reform and productivity agenda.

"The support of modern agreements by our employees is an important milestone for the future of Aurizon," Aurizon Executive Vice President Human Resources, John Stephens said.

"This is the catalyst for significant productivity enhancements and workplace flexibility in order to deliver for our customers and sustain and grow our business."

Each of the new Aurizon enterprise agreements have a three year period of operation. ​

Under the enterprise agreements, each year employees will receive a 4% pay increase in return for major productivity improvements such as greater rostering flexibility and the removal of legacy provisions, including:

• The removal of the 'no forced redundancy' provision, and
• The removal of rail passes for the majority of employees. Rail passes for employees with more than 25 years of service will be valid for long distance travel until 2018.

The Train Crew and Transport Operations Enterprise Agreement will be lodged with the Fair Work Commission (FWC) will take effect seven days after FWC approval.