By Sarah Danckert and Adam Pengilly
The Rugby League Players Association has stepped up its campaign for a new pay deal from the league, writing to the corporate sponsors of clubs to ask for support.
The players’ union sent letters on Thursday afternoon to the main sponsors of the clubs and the league to complain about the lack of progress in negotiations.
The league’s sponsors include some of Australia’s biggest blue chip corporates and household brands including Telstra, Sportsbet, KFC, Chemist Warehouse and Harvey Norman. Letters are also being sent to the chairs of each club.
The letters, viewed by this masthead, said the association acknowledged the disruption and distraction that resulted from the player-led action to draw attention to their pursuit of a fair collective bargaining agreement with the NRL.
“We are not asking you to pick sides in this dispute but to encourage the NRL to engage in a process to resolve it,” the letter, signed by Rugby League Players’ Association chairman Deidre Anderson and chief executive Clint Newton, stated.
“We’ve laid the path out; it is fair and reasonable and can enable an end to these negotiations. It is in the interest of everyone invested in the NRL and the sport of rugby league that this matter be resolved.”
NRL and NRLW players (l-r): Kieran Foran, Quincy Dodd, Latrell Mitchell, Yasmin Clydsdale and Haumole Olakau’atu covering the NRL logo in protest over the collective bargaining agreement talks.Credit: Getty
Sources aware of the letters, but not permitted to speak publicly, said the league was drafting a letter to send to their sponsors in response to the players’ letter.
Talks between the RLPA and head office to finalise a new collective bargaining agreement have ground to a halt after the players’ union proposed an industrial relations mediator be used to settle the dispute.
The NRL has said it has no appetite to accept the proposal, arguing the context of months of negotiations would be lost on a third party. Former Fairfax Media and News Corporation executive Brett Clegg had been acting as a facilitator between the parties since late last year.
This week it was revealed that the NRL salary cap, used to equalise teams, will not be enforceable if a pay deal could not be struck by the end of October. Prominent players are also considering delaying the return to pre-season training if the dispute continues.
Chair of the RLPA Board Chair of the RLPA Board Dr Deidre Anderson at a press conference last month.Credit: Rhett Wyman
The players and the league have found themselves at loggerheads over a range of issues covered in the collective bargaining agreement. This includes minimum wage, agreement rights over a longer season, insurance for death and total disability and autonomy over union funding.
Many NRL players are paid handsomely, but there are concerns at the union the deal is not fair to many players who earn much lower salaries while facing the prospect of having a shorter playing career due to injury risk. The pay deal will cover both the players in the NRL and NRLW.
Last weekend, male and female players covered up the NRL logo on their jerseys to show their frustration about the progress of negotiations. The players are mulling a range of other potential actions, including delaying kick off times for matches and boycotting the Dally M presentation event.
The letters also focuses on a range of issues that have created tension in the pay deal, including the use of player images and data.
“It is our firm position that no decision relating to the health and safety of players, the use [and potential abuse] of personal and medical data, player welfare, or the exploitation of their name and image rights, should be determined without the agreement of the people most affected by those decisions – the players.”
“If we were to accept the NRL’s ‘final offer’, we would fall further behind all other major sports in the world with respect to sophisticated industrial relations, recognition of player rights, and best practice standards. The players are not willing to be responsible for that outcome.”
None of the sponsors contacted commented on the letter. The NRL declined to comment.
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