Give Telstra workers the democratic right to negotiate a collective agreement
August 28, 2008
Telstra workers should be given the choice to have their unions negotiate a collective agreement rather than have the company’s managers push a non-negotiable job contract upon them.
Unions have today applied to the industrial umpire, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, to help end the dispute with the company by conducting a ballot of Telstra employees about whether they want a union-negotiated collective agreement or a non-union deal as the company is insisting.
Telstra management is using the damaging remnants of the Howard Government’s Work Choices IR laws to deny workers the right to be represented by unions.
Many Telstra staff - both union members and non-members - rightly believe they can get a better pay and conditions from genuine collective bargaining.
Telstra’s own documents show union negotiated enterprise agreements have delivered 15% above the ‘market’.
They mistrust the company after it was revealed Telstra managers have a plan to slash the company’s wages bill by sidelining union involvement in negotiations over pay and conditions.
Since Telstra unilaterally walked away from the negotiating table last month, the 70% of workers covered by the current enterprise agreement have been denied their choice to be professionally represented in bargaining.
That’s like saying you can become a member of a golf club but not be allowed onto the greens.
The non-negotiable pay offer made by Telstra to some staff this week fails to keep pace with a Reserve Bank forecast inflation rate of 5% this year, and would cut key conditions such as overtime and redundancy entitlements for new employees.
There has been strong feedback to unions and the ACTU that Telstra employees want to have their wages and conditions to be negotiated by unions.
So we’ve asked for the help of the Industrial Relations Commission to hold a secret ballot and give Telstra workers a say (read the supporting documents here, here and here).
This is a very simple request, and a litmus test of Telstra management’s respect - or lack of it - for its workforce.
This is about management having a co-operative relationship with their employees, and we would welcome Telstra’s involvement in supporting the ballot.
Come on Telstra management. Let’s have a vote.
What can you do?
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* Share your questions and concerns with us: Telstra@actu.asn.au or call our workers’ helpline on 1300 362 223
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15 Responses to “Give Telstra workers the democratic right to negotiate a collective agreement”
Got something to say?
It is good to see the union with some long lost courage.
If you are successful I will rejoin.
By the way, if you are successful, I hope you can restore the lost faith many members have in their union.
Some consultation with members prior to enterprise bargaining to evaluate what employees want, would be a good start !
How about listening to problems “between” EBA negotiations ?
The only time the union is interested in listening to members is in times of EBA negotiations ?
Why is it so ?
Good luck, I am on your side, but I don’t have a choice.
Cheers,
Andrew
Great its about time we started to push ahead again they have been waving their big stick far to long very soon we will be working for nothing while they still watch us with their GPS. John
Why did the Union ruin the Telstra talks by submitting a silly MOU?
Surely the Union could have kept the EBA negotiations separate, asking for Union dominated requests was totally wrong.
No wonder Telstra was legally able to close the negotiations.
This time leave the MOU until after EBA discussions have finished.
Goodluck in your new avenue re the Industrial Relations Commission.
I live and work in North West W.A.BOOM TOWN ! My wages are a joke compared to what i could be earning in the mining industry! Don,t insult me by offering a below inflation rate “Strings Attached” payrise!TELSTRA 13.5% Profit at my expense,GET REAL!!
If the AIRC recommends a ballot, I’m positive the vote would be in favour of a union negotiated collective agreement.
I’m supporting your ballot as several younger employees have said to me that they just don’t understand the new ECA proposal. They ask “where is the discussion” when asked for feedback.
I fully endorse the idea put forward in this document, and believe that Telstra HR should as well. If they (HR) value their employees as much as they say they do, I can’t see any reason that they might put forward for not supporting it, as being valid.This whole charade, put forward by HR, has done nothing but alienate management from their workers. It is obvious that they have had this course of action planned for some time and were only waiting for an opportune moment to carry it out. As far as I am concerned they have no credibility what so ever. Do they think that their employees are so stupid that that they wouldn’t be able to see through the half truths ( some might consider them to be lies) they claimed about the proposals put forward by the Union movement. Any goodwill that was there between management and its employees has now disappeared.
Unions have become irrelevant. They kick and whinge only when EBA renewal is looming. They have tried to flex more muscle than they really have and now have been sidelined by Telstra and some existing members.
Seing as how the Labour Gouverment came to power on the back of it’s “work choices” policies, the unions should put more pressure on Julia Gillard to protect Telstra workers and their families. Contary to what John France thinks, Unions are necessary because there are a lot of workers out there who would like a third party (Unions) to negotiate their pay and conditions for them. It is their choice and their right.
I don’t trust Telstra’s performance based wages, from what I can see it has already ruined the company. It doesn’t work, the managers are on AWA’s with performance based wages (KPI’s) but the workers are on EBA’s, we work hard so the managers can get their bonus but we get nothing.
Even if we were pushed onto the same performance base wages I am sure Telstra Management would move the goal posts so we would never obtain our KPI’s. What ever happened to the good old days of doing your best for your own self satisfaction and dignity.
It makes me laugh that Get Overit does not have the intestinal fortitude to use a real name. Smells like management to me.
PROUD TO BE UNION
Why not make the EBA negotiations open and a tranparant as possible.
Make it a pod cast!
Then eveybody can hear whom said what and why!
Go get em…. REX
As Leroy said, the Labour Gouverment came to power on the back of it’s “work choices” policies, and that the unions should put more pressure on Julia Gillard to protect Telstra workers and their families. But I think Julia should do more than just that. Telstra’s management is insulting all of us that voted Labour in. Make an example of Telstra’s management. Force them to admit the unfair and premeditated plans they put in-place long before the EBA discussions commenced. Shame them. In any way. From the highest levels in government to their own employees, expose their tactics and hurt their reputations.
HERE HERE Dan!!!