The ACA don’t seem impressed by Cricket Australia’s latest offer
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Cricket Australia have offered a few concessions and sent contract offers to players in an attempt to end the pay impasse.
With a week to go before the current Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) ends on June 30, Cricket Australia are willing to let the players share in profits that are above projections and are also ready to increase the salary of male domestic players.
In regards to the contract offers that were sent out, the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) has advised all the players not to sign it since no terms and conditions are specified.
“The ACA notes that CA has made a revised MoU offer and sent it to the players. They have also issued ‘contract offers’ directly to individual players for their signature; bypassing the ACA,” the association said in a statement. “The ACA has advised players not to sign. The letter provided to players today from CA does not accurately reflect how far apart the parties remain with a week to go. The parties have not reached agreement on many fundamental issues.
“The contract offers do not contain Revenue Sharing for all players, and are not what they appear to be. They do not include crucial information regarding terms and conditions. Further, as has been requested since August 2016, critical financial and forecasting information has yet to be provided so the ACA can properly assess the offers and advise the players accordingly. This remains unacceptable.”
In the letter than accompanied the contract offers, Cricket Australia’s lead negotiator Kevin Roberts confirmed that the board are prepared to “increase the international cricket surpluses that are shared with players, include all domestic players in the sharing arrangements, and increase annual pay rises to male state players with commensurate increases for WNCL and WBBL players to maintain gender pay equity”.
Roberts also said that players will now be offered contracts, but added that the terms could change based on negotiations between Cricket Australia and the ACA.
“These contracts are conditional upon a new MoU being agreed,” Roberts wrote. “If further increases in pay are agreed for male state players, along with WNCL and WBBL players due to the increases contemplated above, the offers in the contracts would be varied accordingly.
“The contracts would not require any variation for the inclusion of domestic players in the sharing of any international cricket surpluses above the level required to fund player payments. We trust that the ACA will respond positively to this new offer that CA is proposing in order to achieve a positive outcome for the players and the game.”