Yarra Trams workers have been bargaining for a new enterprise agreement since April. The company made its first offer in August.

One of the tram workers’ main concerns is protection from arbitrary sackings. Trammies rallied last year against a management policy that pins all the blame for any mishap on already pressured drivers.

Since 2013, Yarra Trams has escalated from sacking one or two drivers per year, to one a month. One of drivers’ key demands is for a disciplinary clause with some protections for workers to be included in the new enterprise agreement.

Rostering and hours are also key issues. Yarra Trams want to be able to force drivers to work 10-hour days, and to be able to order tram drivers to finish a working day at a different depot. Yarra Trams and the union are already in dispute over management’s use of labour hire employees; management want to be able to extend labour hire to more of the network, more often.

Even with clauses that have been agreed, such as domestic violence and parental leave, management want to put the agreement into company policy – which can be changed at management’s will – rather than lock the conditions into the legally binding enterprise agreement.

Of course, pay is an issue. With a base salary of just over $1,200 per week, tram drivers are more than $200 per week behind the average ordinary time wage. Loadings for working antisocial hours boost this figure. But Yarra Trams’ offer of 1.33 percent per year, with bigger rises dependent on workers giving up conditions, is a bad joke.