Electrical Contracting Award temporary variation | NECA

News & Views

27th May 2020

Electrical Contracting Award temporary variation

SETTING THE FACTS STRAIGHT: Electrical Contracting Award temporary variation

NECA is currently aware of a campaign that is causing unwarranted and unnecessary concern across the industry.

NECA has been in regular communication with the ETU to support employers and their employees to move forward through this difficult period as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

NECA would like to confirm that:

  1. The variation NECA was seeking is temporary and set to expire on 30 June 2020.
  2. The reason this variation was being sought was to allow employers more flexibility to schedule workers over a 7 day period to provide greater flexibility to meet Government social distancing requirements. 
  3. NECA is not seeking to abolish penalty rates. 
  4. Never has NECA sought to abolish overtime rates where a worker works in excess of their ordinary 38 hours of work per week or where a worker is engaged on the weekend, after working a full 38 hours during the week.
  5. NECA was seeking to expand the time over which ordinary hours could be worked to include, Saturday and Sunday, between the hours of 5am to 7pm, up until 30 June 2020.
  6. It should be noted that 99 of the 103 Awards in Australia have now been varied through co-operation between the Employer and Unions parties.
  7. NECA only seeks to co-operate with the ETU to find common ground, to assist employers and their employees move forward through this difficult period. It is NECA’s aim to achieve a consent position with the ETU.