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CEPU Bulletins
Telstra general
06/10/2009 E-Bulletin #19 - Telstra EBA talks: Members reject poor pay offer 1. Telstra EBA talks 2. Employees vote up Optus EPA 3. Government proposals and Telstra 4. OH&S Harmonisation Model Act out for public comment soon 5. Ombudsman investigates claims women sacked on maternity leave 6. Industrial death – support groups call for strengthened health and safety 7. Improvements to the Comcare scheme announced 8. CEO pay in top companies up 10% a year in real terms 9. Call centre workers demand: freedom to organise, freedom to bargain 10. Kordia Enterprise Agreement for Maritime Safety Communications System Officers 11. Broadcast Technicians Reject Enterprise Agreement 12. Redundancy, WIPRO and NGO Management 13. Silcar Telecommunications Enterprise Agreement 1. Telstra EBA talks The CEPU has continued to meet Telstra after the company’s release of its pay offer to EA employees. The main outstanding issues continue to relate to the Dispute Resolution Procedures, Job Banding/Classification and Wages. Surveys conducted by the CEPU indicate an overwhelming rejection of Telstra’s pay offer and this is not a surprise when you consider the environment some employees are working under. We have formally written to Telstra advising them of this and indicating that their offer must be improved. Statistical information from Melbourne University’s Institute of Applied Economics and Social Research provides a figure for the poverty line up to the March quarter 2009. This figure shows a family consisting of 2 adults and 2 children (with one parent working), the poverty line is $736 per week. Our calculations for tax and superannuation show a CFW4 in this position takes home $781 per week. This means that a CFW4 in these circumstances (which are not unusual) is currently receiving $45 a week above the poverty line. The CEPU is continuing to fight for a decent wages and conditions agreement and we have been heartened by the membership support. 2. Employees vote up Optus EPA Following negotiations between the CEPU and Optus, the Employment Partnership Agreement (EPA) was voted up between 17 September and 23rd September 2009, 93.14% of employees voted in favour of the EPA 2009 covering their minimum terms and conditions of employment for the next 3 years. An application is being forwarded to Fair Work Australia for the making of an enterprise agreement and we will keep members informed. The CEPU Communications Division is particularly pleased that we were able to negotiate the ability for Optus employees who are in dispute with the company to have access to mediation and arbitration via Fair Work Australia. 3. Government proposals and Telstra The Federal Government’s Telstra regulatory reforms and the proposals around the National Broadband Network continue to dominate our thinking at the CEPU. There is no doubt the legislation will have a significant impact on the telecommunications industry. There are particular implications for our Telstra and Optus members. The CEPU has been engaged with the Office of the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Conroy, with respect to the future employment arrangements for our members. There is also a Senate Inquiry into the proposed legislative package for which submissions are due on 7th October. The CEPU has also spoken out on this issue publicly, with an important opinion piece featured in The Age – which you can access via www.cepuconnects.org The CEPU will continue to play a positive role at the forthcoming Telstra AGM in Sydney on 4th November, members wishing to proxy votes should forward these to Len Cooper and Burt Blackburne at Divisional Office. With respect to comments by the former head of public policy at Telstra, Phil Burgess, at best you might call his comments gratuitous. Burgess appears to have selective memory in analysing Telstra’s performance under Sol’s watch when amongst other problems such as isolating the company from just about all stakeholders the share price fall to below $3! Not a lot to crow about Phil! 4. OH&S Harmonisation Model Act out for public comment soon The Workplace Relations Minister’s Council has met and was presented with the Model OH&S laws. It is expected that the Model Act will be available for public comment this week. Check the Safe Work Australia website for the draft. The public comment period will last six weeks and members are invited to contact the union with any questions or concerns. 5. Ombudsman investigates claims women sacked on maternity leave The Workplace Ombudsman is concerned at widespread claims of maternity discrimination. The Fair Work Ombudsman has received over 90 discrimination complaints of women being sacked by stealth whilst they are on maternity leave. In one case highlighted by the ombudsman, a woman was initially denied maternity leave after being told by the employer she had no entitlement. The leave was granted to her after she questioned this, but 8 months into her maternity leave she saw the job being advertised. Under the Fair Work Act 2009 the ombudsman has the powers to prosecute employers for a range of discriminatory practices. 6. Industrial death – support groups call for strengthened health and safety Victim support groups have written to the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, calling on her to support the highest standards for workplace health and safety. Leaders of victim support groups in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia have urged stronger health and safety protections to prevent more families suffering the heartbreak of workplace deaths and injuries. The letter says that proposed changes to workplace health and safety laws fall well short of providing world’s best practice. Signatories to the letter include Deanne May, from Industrial Deaths Support & Advocacy Inc (Victoria), Cheryl Romer, convenor, the Workplace Tragedy Family Support Group (NSW) and Andrea Madeley, President of Voice of Industrial Death (South Australia). 7. Improvements to the Comcare scheme announced The Comcare scheme provides workers’ compensation and occupational health and safety (OHS) arrangements for employees of the Australian Government and of some private sector companies that are licensed to self-insure their workers’ compensation liabilities under the scheme. These decisions have enormous implications for our Telstra, Australia Post and Optus members. In a great move, the Rudd Government imposed a moratorium on private sector companies seeking to join the Comcare scheme and announced a review to ensure that Comcare is a suitable OHS and workers’ compensation system for self-insurers and their employees. Given the progress towards harmonised national OHS laws and the proposed transfer of OHS coverage for Comcare self-insurers to the States and Territories, the Government will maintain the moratorium until 2011 when uniform OHS laws have been implemented in all jurisdictions. In response to the review, the Government will make a number of important improvements to the Comcare scheme. To encourage timely determination of workers’ compensation claims, a statutory time limit will be introduced within which claims must be determined. This is another excellent move. The Government will reinstate workers’ compensation coverage for off-site recess breaks – which is something the CEPU has been pressing to get fixed for some time. This will re-align the Comcare scheme with the majority of jurisdictions and remove the inequity in coverage for employees whose employers do not provide on-site facilities for meal breaks. Medical and related costs will continue to be paid where a worker’s weekly compensation benefits are suspended for refusing to participate in the rehabilitation process. The Minister will direct Comcare to strengthen its enforcement of OHS. The Minister will also write to Comcare and ask it to issue guidance material to assist employers in improving consultation will all employees on OHS matters. These improvements build on earlier enhancements and work already underway and arise from a sustained campaign by CEPU to lift benefits for members. The Government has already increased workers’ compensation lump sum and weekly death benefits under the Comcare scheme to align them more closely with death benefits payable under State and Territory schemes. While we’ve been vocal on other issues where we believe the Government should be pursuing a stronger, more worker-friendly agenda we think they have made some very positive moves here – and we congratulate them for it. 8. CEO pay in top companies up 10% a year in real terms Chief executives at the top fifty to a hundred listed companies increased pay by 10% a year in real terms between 1993 and 2007, or cumulatively more than 300%, according to the Productivity Commission draft. Chief executives of the top 20 listed companies in 2007-08 earned an average of $10 million – 150 times average wages. From the mid-1990s until 2000, CEO pay grew at about 13% a year for the top 100 countries and about 16% for the ASX50, but the growth moderated from 2000 to 2007, growing by 6% a year for top 100 countries. Nevertheless CEO pay grew by 50% among the top 100. The productivity commission draft says “nearly all” of the growth in CEO pay is due to increases in performance pay, especially “long-term incentives”, which more than tripled between 2003-04 and 2007-08. Regrettably the productivity commission has rejected capping executive remuneration. This means we can expect more like former Telstra Chief Operating Officer, Greg Winn taking away a $2.2 million bonus for leaving delays and a $200 million hole with the IT transformation. Or over in Australia Post, it’s worth remembering that their MD earns 10 times what the Prime Minister earns – or a staggering 70 times what an average postie earns. 9. Call centre workers demand: freedom to organise, freedom to bargain A union makes the difference between low-quality, high-risk, isolating jobs and a secure, fulfilling career in the world’s call centres, said UNI Global Union today. October is Call Centre Action Month and UNI and its affiliates around the world will be calling on one company in particular, Telefonica, to give its workers the chance to have a union. Most of the world’s call centre workers are closely monitored, expected to meet unrealistic performance targets, have low job discretion, earn low wages, have no union or labour rights and lack of job security. “Today, call centre workers all around the world will start a month of co-ordinated actions to gain a fair deal at work. Hundreds of thousands of unionised call centre workers in the world have decent jobs, with fair, safe working conditions, but non-union call centre workers do not,” said Marcus Courtney, head of UNI Telecom. “We want to ensure that every call centre worker, wherever they are can bargain a fair deal for their work, which means better wages, safer working conditions, increased job security and above all respect on the job.” A global study of call centre work from researchers at Cornell University in 2007 revealed that around 70% of all call centre staff work in “low, or very low, quality” jobs. 10. Kordia Enterprise Agreement for Maritime Safety Communications System Officers The CEPU met with Kordia Management on 22nd September to finalise negotiations for a new Enterprise Agreement for Kordia Communications System Officers working at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority offices in Canberra. The union expects the final draft of the Agreement to be available for circulation to members for consideration and possible vote within the next 2 weeks. Further details of the Agreement will be included in the next edition of E-Bulletin. 11. Broadcast Technicians Reject Enterprise Agreement A telephone conference call of Broadcast Technicians working for Broadcast Australia (BA) has soundly rejected management’s draft Enterprise Agreement. The following day CEPU contacted the BA HR Director to seek an urgent meeting with BA senior management to try and resolve the differences. Subsequently BA advised the union that a written response would be provided and that there would be no meeting that was more than 2 weeks ago. Since then several attempts to contact Broadcast Australia have been ignored. The union is now considering its options including legal and industrial and will report to members shortly. 12. Redundancy, WIPRO and NGO Management The CEPU had a further meeting with NGO Management on October 1, 2009. The meeting was to further discuss the issues of outsourcing of work to the Indian Company WIPRO at the same time redundancies are being contemplated for permanent Telstra employees. Arising from the talks Telstra has advised the CEPU as follows: • The original estimated 37 redundancies figure has now been reduced to 26. • Ten of these employees have secured new roles in other parts of the business. • Telstra would facilitate redeployment of the permanent Telstra employees to undertaken the WIPRO work, should any “surplus” staff wish to perform that work. • Consultation will continue with the employees and the CEPU and there was no plan for a SWAL process in the week commencing October 4. The CEPU is stepping up its campaign around this issue as potentially sham redundancies at the same time as using Section 457 visa employees from India is a public and political nightmare for Telstra. 13. Silcar Telecommunications Enterprise Agreement As a result of employees rejecting the Silcar Telecommunications Enterprise Agreement for a second time the company has arranged a conference involving Silcar management, employees nominated by their peers and the CEPU to thrash out an enterprise agreement acceptable to employees. The conference is to be held in Sydney on 7th and 8th October. The outcome of the meeting will be reported in next week’s E-Bulletin. |
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Europe: European transnationals abuse workers’ rights in America | Middle East: Domestic workers in the Middle East have a horrible time : Little better than slavery | Mexico: One dead in clashes at Cananea copper mine | France: Unions call for further action against increase in retirement age | Global: Photo-essay: The world's most repressive workplace environments | France: Millions protest over higher pension age | USA: Mott's Strike in Media Spotlight on Labor Day | South Africa: Strike suspended: Unions claim victory | India: Trade unions go on a 24-hour nationwide strike | Global: Unions Step up Pressure for Jobs and Social Justice– One Month to World Day for Decent Work | USA: Obama Unveils Huge Infrastructure/Jobs Program at Milwaukee’s LaborFest | France: Unions to Strike as Sarkozy Pension Bill Debate Starts | Mexico: ICEM Condemns Repression of Workers by Government, Grupo Mexico | South Africa: Did the World Cup Wreck South Africa? | North America: Hyatt faces strikes and protests in cities across North America
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NSW Telecommunications & Services Branch
