Your copy of the MoU + our most recent letter to Andrea Grant

August 6, 2008

We’re really pleased so many people have visited our site and signed up to receive our emails in the past few days since our launch.

It is clear that Telstra staff, whether union members or not, are in desperate need of some clarity about what is going on. You have been inundated with internal communications from Telstra that are incorrect. One of the things we hope to do here is publish all our documents and correspondence from now on - so you can see for yourself what is really happening in our campaign to protect your rights at Telstra.

Here is another copy of the MoU that unions have suggested as the basis for a new, more constructive relationship between Telstra HR and your representatives. Please feel free to share it with your colleagues.

Below is our latest letter to Andrea Grant. You can get a PDF here. Basically the important elements are:

* We have always been clear that we want any document solidifying a new, constructive relationship between Telstra and the unions to be legal, so we have made the necessary slight adjustments taking into account HR’s feedback.

* Even though the MoU has been found legal, we are not making signing up to a more constructive relationship a precondition of EA bargaining. We will bargain on behalf of our members and their colleagues at any time.

Click “Read the rest of this entry »” below to read the letter. As you read it, you might like to constrast it with recent correspondence you have received within Telstra, for example, the email from David Moffat.

Dear Ms Grant,

We refer to your letter dated 25 July 2008 addressed to the CEPU, in which you advised that Telstra had withdrawn from EA negotiations.

In your letter you indicated that Telstra had taken this decision because it believed that by seeking to document a more constructive approach to industrial relations with the company, unions were asking Telstra to enter into an agreement that was not compliant with the previous Howard Government’s Construction Industry Code and Guidelines (the Code). You believed that an “illegal” agreement of this nature would jeopardize Telstra’s National Broadband Network bid. Lastly, you asserted that such an agreement would not be democratic.

As we said in our letter to Darren Fewster dated June 18, “The ACTU/SBU takes these concerns very seriously and as explained at the meeting we, at no stage, are seeking to have the company break the law or jeopardise its chances of winning the FTTN contract because of what might be seen as unlawful company behaviour.”

The unions have approached these negotiations with a genuine desire to move away from the adversarial approach of the more recent past, and to work constructively with the company as it negotiates the enormously challenging technological, commercial and regulatory era that lies ahead. It is in our members’ interests that Telstra is successful and it grows.

Unions used the draft Constructive Relationship Agreement (CRA) to spark debate about a new method of moving forward with Telstra. We later refined the principles to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). We have offered, and reiterate that offer today, for this MoU and the new, positive relationship it signifies to be the subject of a company-wide vote.

Last week, unions received advice from the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) confirming that our MoU, adjusted slightly to take into account your feedback, was perfectly legal.

This advice from the relevant umpire, along with our offer of giving employees a democratic vote on the new relationship, means your stated concerns are now void.
Although we think a positive relationship would be in the interests of employees, shareholders and customers, we have not placed any preconditions on bargaining. We will represent our members and their colleagues and negotiate with the company at any time.

We are particularly concerned that Telstra’s loyal employees will be disadvantaged as a consequence of the refusal of the company to meet and negotiate a replacement Enterprise Agreement.

We therefore now invite Telstra to re-commence the negotiation process for a new Enterprise Agreement in good faith; and look forward to your positive response.

Yours sincerely,

[Our signatures]

Written by TelstraUnions · Filed Under Telstra HR's dodgy dealings 

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