Where’s the Festive Cheer at Telstra?

December 22, 2008

Union Xmas Cheer
Telstra employees have sought to spread a little festive cheer today, visiting the Melbourne corporate headquarters to deliver Christmas cards to Sol ‘Scrooge’ Trujillo.

Sol wasn’t available when the troops descended on 242 Exhibition Street at lunchtime, but they managed to hand the cards over at reception anyway.

The cards bore a simple message: “All we want for Christmas is fair union agreement”.
On the flipside, hundreds of workers signed personal messages for the Telstra CEO during stopwork meetings last week, asking him to put an end to the stonewalling and begin negotiating a union collective agreement.

After all, Sol, it is Christmas: where’s your spirit of giving?

Thousands of Telstra employees now head into the Christmas holiday period without a pay rise for more than six months.

As usual, many will be working while the rest of us are taking a break to ensure that those phone calls and email messages to loved ones and friends around the world get through without any trouble.

But where’s the gratitude from management? Instead, all the workers get from human resources is a refusal to even sit down and talk with the Telstra unions.

Meanwhile, management is persisting with its flawed non-union deals with mixed results. The latest deal, made to about 80 workers in the Triple-O Emergency Services Answer Point and Disability Inquiry Hotline, went down by a lead balloon. It was rejected in a vote last week. Telstra HR’s spruiking resembles the Boxing Day clearance sales – except they’re not getting knocked over by any rush.

Unions have serious concerns about the process being undertaken by Telstra regarding these agreements. Members have relayed their fears and confusion.

Here’s a few reasons why employees should VOTE NO if any non-union deal is offered to them:

  • They will lose bargaining power. Telstra HR’s strategy is clear and predictable – they want to ‘divide and conquer’ staff by splitting the workforce into tiny groups so they can reduce bargaining power.
  • The pay rise doesn’t stack up. Telstra HR’s latest offer does not even keep pace with the current cost of living. It also compares poorly with the increases awarded to senior managers. CEO Sol Trujillo’s latest annual increase was 14%, taking his total pay packet up to a staggering $13.4 mil a year.
  • On the pay issue Telstra are trying to have it both ways. To staff they say the current offer is out for a limited time, and “future pay offers will be reviewed in light of global economic circumstances.” But Chief Financial Officer John Stanhope told investors recently: “History shows that during periods where the economy slows or even declines, Telstra and its sector continue to grow at rates above GDP (gross domestic product). We would expect that to again be the case.” (The Age, 7 November 2008).
  • They will lose rights at work. If the proposed agreement gets up, they will no longer be able to have union meetings in the workplace to discuss workplace issues. It will become illegal. This will not change unless and until new workplace laws are introduced. The company will no longer be under any obligation to consult with unions about major changes. It will also be harder for unions to enforce the agreement as they will have a reduced role in dispute resolution.
  • Their workmates will miss out. The introduction of a two part agreement means new and AWA employees will miss out on guaranteed pay increases, have lower conditions of employment (including less flexible hours of work, no leave loading, no allowances and employees may be asked to work significant overtime without payment).

There is a better way! Employees showed in September that when Telstra workers stick together and reject these unfair agreements they can get a better deal for all Telstra workers. The Government has now introduced new industrial relations laws that will restore some fairness in the workplace.

As every day passes, we get closer to the time when WorkChoices will finally be nothing more than a bad memory.

Someone needs to remind Telstra management, it is almost 2009 and it’s time to get with the program.

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Written by TelstraUnions · Filed Under News 

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