Poll: Are Telstra’s non-union ballots fair?
January 30, 2009
Telstra’s industrial relations strategy is under a cloud after the Australian Electoral Commission cast fresh doubt on the validity of non-union workplace ballots conducted by the company. In light of the findings by the AEC, unions are calling on management to withdraw from its strategy of non-union employee agreements.
In response to earlier concerns raised by the ACTU, the federal Electoral Commissioner, Ed Killesteyn, has confirmed that ballots conducted at Telstra did not meet the AEC’s minimum standards to ensure ‘free and fair’ elections. Specifically, there was no process for independent scrutiny of the results.
Unions have long had concerns about the conduct of ballots for non-union deals and pressure being placed upon small groups of Telstra staff to vote in favour of them. Among the concerns are that Telstra refuses to release the results of the ballots, does not allow independent scrutiny of counting, and will not disclose the number of people eligible to vote. By contrast, unions were totally open and fully disclosed the results of the ballot held late last year to approve industrial action.
Telstra management has been seeking to implement its non-union agreements in smaller and smaller groups through a slice-and-dice IR strategy after its initial non-union deals were rejected last year. Now the AEC has exposed grave concerns about the legitimacy of more than a dozen ballots held since late last year. The story is reported in The Age
It’s difficult to have any confidence that the ballots for these non-union deals have been conducted above-board. Ballots that did not meet the AEC’s standards should be declared null and void, and the votes should be re-run in an open and transparent manner. The AEC’s findings raise issues about whether the results of any of the dozen or so ballots can be believed.
Tellingly, rather than conform to the AEC’s standards, Telstra simply took its business elsewhere, to a private operator more used to running ballots at company shareholder meetings. Individual workers at Telstra have shown great courage after being placed under intense pressure from management to vote in favour of the non-union deals. Some workers have even been rung at home by their team leader exhorting them to vote in favour of a non-union deal! There have also been cases of misinformation, such as the intervention by Human Resources after team leaders allegedly circulated false and misleading statements about the company redundancy agreement.
Despite these concerns, staff in Telstra IT this week rejected the company’s latest non-union offer. Well done. If you have been offered a non-union contract, contact your union and don’t forget to download and fill out this letter to the Director of the Workplace Authority, Barbara Bennett (and forward a copy of the letter and the response to your union or to Your Rights at Telstra). You can also comment about it here on this site.
Telstra workers are continuing industrial action around the country to force the company to begin negotiations for a company-wide enterprise agreement. More than 8000 of Telstra’s workers are authorised to take protected industrial action, which is having an impact on services with reports of a blow-out in unattended faults and system breakdowns of mobile phone networks and electronic banking.
Sol Trujillo – currently in the Swiss Alps resort town of Davos for the World Economic Summit, where business executives must pay $US230,000 to attend (that’s $350,000 of shareholders’ money) – has reportedly been forced to personally calm down the Commonwealth and NAB banks when faults to their electronic banking networks remained unrectified.
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3 Responses to “Poll: Are Telstra’s non-union ballots fair?”
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Telstra has to be the shonkiest big employer in Australia these days. The way they just keep denying their workforces right to collectively bargain is a total disgrace. I sure hope the Telstra workers keep fighting for their rights at work.
It would be really great if the shareholders would send Telstra executives and board a message at the next AGM. It’s like they’re complicit in what Sol is doing to his workforce, trust in the company and the company’s profitability.
I would like to know why?? Telstra is deliberately targeting areas of their workforce “piece meal” in an attempt to get as many employees onto their ECA as possible.
If the ECA is so good for the workforce why doesn’t Telstra go back to the Union’s and ask for their members vote on their concept in a true democratic way, regardless of the sections or groups they are employed in within the company.
The legislaiton enabling this situation was specifically designed to obstruct and frustrate attempts by the collective to fully participate in the negotiation process. Of course it is unfair!