Vic: ACTU heads to mediation in battle with Telstra

AAP General News (Australia)
08-28-2008
Vic: ACTU heads to mediation in battle with Telstra

By Jeff Turnbull

MELBOURNE, Aug 28 AAP - The ACTU has turned to the industrial relations commission
in its fight against a plan by Australia's biggest telecommunications group to shift its
workers on to what unions say are Work Choice-style agreements.

The ACTU says Telstra is effectively imposing a pay cut on its workers with a 12.5
per cent pay rise offer over three years when the Reserve Bank is forecasting five per
cent inflation.

Telstra cut off negotiations with the ACTU in July and has gone ahead with its own
offers to its 32,000-strong workforce in what ACTU assistant secretary Chris Walton described
as a "divide and conquer strategy".

It has offered 750 employees in its wholesale division the wage rise with more than
half of them on individual contracts.

Mr Walton said the ACTU was applying to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission
to allow Telstra staff to hold a ballot to determine whether they want a union-negotiated
agreement or a non-union agreement.

"Over 70 per cent of workers covered by the enterprise agreement choose to be union
members, yet Telstra is not respecting their rights to be represented and to bargain collectively,"

Mr Walton said.

"Telstra has a choice - they can cooperate with the ballot and respect their employees
democratic wishes, or they can utilise the last remnants of WorkChoice to trample on workers'
rights."

Mr Walton said leaked Telstra documents showed that the telco had plans to slash its
wages bill by sidelining union involvement in wage negotiations.

Louise Persse, the national president of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU),
said Telstra's proposed agreement undercut the legal minimum standard for carers' leave
offering five days instead of 10.

Yesterday, Telstra axed 100 jobs in the credit management call centre in Geelong announcing
it would move part of its operations to Melbourne.

"Job losses of this size are very bad news for local economies and diminish, yet again,
Telstra's engagement with regional Australia," Ms Persse said.

Telstra spokesman Martin Barr said the collective agreement it was putting to its staff
had nothing to do with Work Choices and staff would get to vote on it.

"The union is just punching at shadows because they know that this is a great offer
for our employees," Mr Barr said.

He said any agreement put to eligible employees would include 15 days personal leave,
of which up to 10 days could be taken as carer's leave.

"We are offering eligible employees Employee Collective Agreements that are fair, competitive
and reflect the terms and conditions our people have told us are important to them," Mr
Barr said.

He said the offer of 12.5 per cent increase over three years included up to an extra
7.5 per cent paid as annual performance bonuses.

"That's up to 20 per cent over three years and protecting and retaining their current
key terms and conditions such as redundancy pay, rostered days off, flexitime, grandfathering,
parental leave, annual leave, long service leave, shift penalties, overtime and hours
of work."

AAP jxt/gfr/jfm/bwl

KEYWORD: WORKPLACE TELSTRA

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