Sustained industrial action by staff at Better Read Than Dead has led owners to agree to an Enterprise Agreement which was signed on December 10. Photo: Rose Gosper.
Paul Wilson’s story for the December 2021 issue of the South Sydney Herald ‘Better Read than Dead staff continue to negotiate rights’ revealed how staff of the Newtown bookshop had been trying for more than a year to secure better working conditions with help from the RAFFWU (Retail and Fast Food Workers Union) and strong support from locals and Australia’s literary community.
The new Enterprise Agreement delivers the following:
- Conversion to permanent ongoing employment for all members engaged on a casual basis who wish to convert. A minimum four weeks consultation over major changes, six weeks’ notice of any redundancy, rights to redeployment and severance pay rights.
- Full restoration of 100 per cent penalty for work on Sunday from July 2022.
- Workers to be paid a base rate $1 per hour more than the Award minimum after a year’s service.
- Full suite of health and safety clauses, policies and rights detailed in the agreement.
- Twenty days paid domestic violence leave for those experiencing or supporting those experiencing domestic and family violence and 26 weeks paid parental leave.
