Telstra wants to “fireproof” itself from Labor’s fair new IR laws: legal expert

August 10, 2008

This weekend, The Australian newspaper had a feature on what’s happening at Telstra.

You can find the first article here. In it, Telstra’s head of Human Resources Andrea Grant reveals workers on AWA individual contracts would not be able to opt to go back into an enterprise agreement before their contracts expired. As well as its AWA strategy, the company will consider progressively rolling out non-union staff collective agreements across its divisions.

The longer feature article is here, giving both the Telstra and union points of view. Andrew Stewart, professor of law at the University of Adelaide, is quoted as saying Telstra stands out as one of the few large employers that have been “aggressive about using Work Choices, so it’s no surprise that it’s going to continue to try (to) use what’s left”.

“If they can lock in non-union collective agreements across their workforce before Labor’s new good-faith bargaining laws take effect, then it means they will only have to worry about the effect of those laws as and when those agreements come up for renewal, which would be up to five years away,” Stewart says.

“They’re figuring correctly that when the good-faith bargaining laws come in, there will be more pressure on them than there is under the current regime to actually deal with unions. You’ll have once again, as you had before Work Choices, an independent umpire that will have some power to step in and require some negotiations… The strategy, as I understand it, is to have arrangements in place that will fireproof them against Labor’s new bargaining laws.”

Written by TelstraUnions · Filed Under News 

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