Breaking news: New Wholesale offer after Telstra breaches employment standards
August 29, 2008
After unions uncovered further evidence has emerged about how the employment contract offered to Telstra Wholesale and Service Advantage employees would undercut conditions, management has been forced to re-write the document.
Human resources managers and the company’s highly-paid lawyers have scrambled to correct the serious breach of the new Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard.
They have sent out the new offer to Wholesale and Service Advantage staff.
Scrutiny of the 58-page document by unions had discovered a serious breach of the new Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard.
The provisions at clauses 14.4.1 and 44.3.1 of the original offer on Monday referred explicitly to a maximum of 5 days carer’s leave.
But the Rudd Government’s new AFPCS - the federal minimum employment standards - states that up to 10 days of personal leave in any given year can be used as carer’s leave.
Whoops.
After detecting this breach, your unions swiftly wrote to Telstra asking that it immediately rescind the offer and to recommence negotiations with Telstra unions for an agreement that meets all legal requirements (see the letter here).
Poor Telstra. After all the millions they spend on lawyers to draft their workplace contracts, they still can’t get it right. It’s so hard to get good help these days.
This is more than embarrassing for Telstra having to recall an offer it made just days earlier.
Whether it was intentional or accidental, the breach demonstrates the need to have union involvement in genuine negotiation over wages and employment conditions.
The case demonstrates again how Telstra says one thing publicly and does another in private. The company’s public spokesman was quoted in the media denying there was anything wrong with the document - yet behind the scenes, the company knew it was in deep trouble and began rewriting it. No wonder staff have a deep sense of mistrust of everything Telstra management says.
Without unions negotiating for staff who knows what else is wrong with the proposal and how are workers’ rights protected?
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12 Responses to “Breaking news: New Wholesale offer after Telstra breaches employment standards”
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This is typical of Telstra and the legal acolytes that surround them! just because the legal ‘hired help’ may be expensive it doesn’t make them any good. They are just one more snout in the trough of shareholders, customers and employees. This is such a glaring mistake or a typical Telstra flouting of the law. Either way someones very high priced head should roll :-)Andrea Grant perhaps?
Poor Telstra! this breach demonstrates the need to have union involvement again . We need a strong union negotiating team to have good out come on Pay and Conditions.
Keep up the good fight
Beautiful! Thankyou CEPU
I feel sure Telstra is working its plan to confuse workers and unions. The unions so far have their eye on the ball. All Telstra staff should support the union actively to ensure Telstra do not bring draconian slight of hand proposals to their staff. Telstra’s planned vote, counting and results time frame sure smells more than a little fishy!History shows they have successfully split the staff. Your union can only help if you are supportive of the union efforts on your behalf. Talk to your union, listen to your union, get involved now for the longer term result.
This message from a retired CEPU worker who saw over 50 years the value of union membership, both individually and collectively
I feel sure Telstra is working its plan to confuse workers and unions. The unions so far have their eye on the ball. All Telstra staff should support the union actively to ensure Telstra do not bring draconian slight of hand proposals to their staff. Telstra’s planned vote, counting and results time frame sure smells more than a little fishy!History shows they have successfully split the staff. Your union can only help if you are supportive of the union efforts on your behalf. Talk to your union, listen to your union, get involved now for the longer term result.
This message from a retired CEPU worker who saw over 50 years the value of union membership, both individually and collectively
Comment by Warwick Plumridge on August 30, 2008 @ 11:19 am
This proves what I have repeatedly commented to the Telstra management communiques to staff about this EA process they are following ie not negotiating with employee representative Unions. I have told them that employees individually cannot afford to spend the time nor are they industrial relations savvy to be able to examine the complicated documents being presented to them. I have told them that Telsra HR “trust me I’m a doctor” attitude just won’t cut it with their staff unless of course Telstra offers a pay rise similar or higher than that proposed by the Unions. People will be swayed with up front cash and never mind the conditions they are trading away.
This shows exactly why Unions MUST be involved in negotiations. Anybody who would take Telstra on faith is a fool. This no negotiation take it or leave it scare tactic is a sham. Stand together. Demand Telstra come back to the table and negotiate.
Their legal team that has no regard for the law. They forgot to read Labors interim legislation and tried to impose conditions that are illegal! And not for the first time! What sort of legal practice doesn’t have regard for law.
Clearly Telsra have been operating under bad legal advice for some time now. Maybe Telstra need to lose the firm that’s guiding them over the cliff.
It’s time for a paradigm shift in the culture and behaviour at Telstra…..Starting with losing the shyster law firm.
If we seek Legal Advice regarding the ECA can this be done in work time or are we supposed to do this in our own time?
Also, how can Harmers Workplace Lawyers represent employees & employer. Isn’t that a Conflict of Interest?
I have seen the contracts being offered to staff. This new offer is a blatant attempt o get all staff on an a reduced AWA and call it an award. They are doing this by appealing peoples self interest and ‘divide and conquer’ Part A of the deal is quite sweet, not a bad pay rise, 12.5% over three years (still less than inflation) and all terms and conditions (including leave, flex time and redundancy) preserved for EXISTING employees. New employees don’t get this offer. They get a part B AWA style agreement. No access to flexible working hours, no leave loading, reduced redundancy provision and a larger ‘incentive’ component. I personally know that incentive payments will require very high performance rating that a tiny amount of staff will receive it. Management have been told to reduce the number of people that qualify for incentive payments so you can forget that. Part B staff will e doing the same job under worse conditions and for less money than their Part A colleagues. The whole thing stinks and is a blatant attempt to appeal to divide the workforce and cut out any independent bargaining. We must oppose this and bring the unions back to the table to negotiate a fair deal for all.
How much credence can be placed in Telstra’s offer of free independent legal advice? Was their law firm was advising employees that that the ECA was not compliant with the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard? Next time these HR amateurs want to dabble in industrial relations perhaps they should run the paper work past the union.