Staff will walk off the job for 24 hours at 11am AEDT on Wednesday.
ABC staff are set to strike on Wednesday following a vote by members of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) unions.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports ABC’s chief people officer Deena Amorelli informed staff of the results of the vote on the latest enterprise offer on Monday morning, which fell short by 395 votes.
At 11am AEDT on Wednesday morning a 24 hour strike will impact ABC News and other divisions after they rejected the latest pay offer, which came with a $1000 “sweetener” orchestrated by MD, Hugh Marks.
MEAA told its members, “Go into your local bureau before 10:30am AEDT so we can all down tools and walk out together at 11:00am AEDT – we’ll send you details about the logistics of your local action soon.”
ABC CPSU section secretary Jocelyn Gammie told news.com.au members didn’t take the choice to strike “lightly”.
“The fact that so many union members have taken this step demonstrates how frustrated they are at this process. ABC staff work hard to provide high-quality services for the Australian community. They deserve to be treated with respect and that means a decent pay offer and fair agreement,” she said.
“The last thing union members want to do is inconvenience loyal ABC audiences by disrupting programming and services, but key bargaining claims remain unresolved.
“Unless the ABC put a fair offer on the table, disruptions are inevitable.”
The action represents a major test of Marks’ management term since he was installed a year ago.
The last major strike at ABC was in 2006.
This post updates.
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